New Delhi: Amid being under scanner in India for not complying with the newly formed IT rules, Twitter has now withdrawn the blue verified badge from the personal Twitter handle of Vice President of India, M Venkaiah Naidu, @MVenkaiahNaidu on Saturday.
According to Twitter, the blue verified badge on Twitter lets people know that an account of public interest is authentic. To receive the blue badge, your account must be authentic, notable, and active. It aims to encourage and maintain trust between users on the platform by confirming the identity of an account with Twitter in order to be verified.
While this step indicates that Twitter can withdraw the blue verified badge against any verified account irrespective of the importance of the position of the account holder Twitter.
"The personal account of Venkaiah Naidu was inactive for six months and the blue badge has gone," an official was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.
However, the official handle of the Vice President of India, @VPSecretariat, continues to have the blue tick.
What are Twitter's policies for obtaining the blue tick?
According to the policies stated by Twitter for the blue badge, an account must be notable, authentic, and active.
Twitter currently verifies 6 types of notable handles which include Government Companies, brands and non-profit organisation, News organizations and journalists, Entertainment, Sports and esports, activists, organisers, and other influential individuals.
When can Twitter remove the blue badge from a profile?
Twitter can remove the blue tick from any account without at any time any prior notice.
- Twitter can withdraw the blue tick if an account changes its username (@handle)
- Twitter can remove the blue badge if an account becomes inactive or incomplete
- The blue tick can be taken back if the owner of the account is no longer for which position they were initially verified and does not otherwise meet the criteria for verification since leaving such position.
- Twitter may also remove the blue verified badge from accounts that are found to be in severe or repeated violation of the Twitter Rules.
- Twitter can withdraw the verification from the handle if an account holder violates policies like impersonation or intentionally misleading people on Twitter by changing display name or bio violations that result in immediate account suspension.
- Twitter removers blue tick over repeated violations in Tweets, including but not limited to hateful conduct policy, abusive behavior, glorification of violence policy, civic integrity policy, private information policy, or platform manipulation and spam policy.
- The blue verified badge was removed from the Vice President of India's personal Twitter handle over inactivity, although several users have put screenshots of handles that continue to have blue tick despite being inactive for over a year which is raising questions over the policies of the microblogging platform.
(With ANI inputs)