[user104658]

Originally Posted by Maru

Twitter is confusing to me now, because I don't understand their checkmarking system anymore. It used to be that the people with it were notable, and I would be like oh I learned something today... now 50% of the them either fit into some activist category (LGBT for example) or a semi-journalist, or a semi-actor and I'm still confused why they have a checkmark... it's like CBB's definition of a celebrity. Like who is going to bother to dupe those accounts when they have almost no activity on them...

As far as I know, it's just a confirmation of identity? Like they have supplied evidence to Twitter that they really are the person in their pic / bio, and not a "fake account". I guess back in it's earlier days it would mostly be celebrities that needed verified / official accounts because they would be the most likely to have their account cloned, but these days I guess anyone who "uses their name professionally" might need to protect themselves from cloned accounts and imposters. Especially people who get into "heated subjects" and are likely to be targetted by someone with an axe to grind.

I think it should be offered to everyone as standard really... a "certification" mark if you supply proof of identity. My wife had her facebook account cloned by a malicious little **** half way around the world a few years ago, who she had argued with on a random page, and he had taken her pictures and name and started posting slanderous crap everywhere. It took facebook FOREVER to sort it out and have the account removed.

[kirklancaster]

Originally Posted by Toy Soldier

As far as I know, it's just a confirmation of identity? Like they have supplied evidence to Twitter that they really are the person in their pic / bio, and not a "fake account". I guess back in it's earlier days it would mostly be celebrities that needed verified / official accounts because they would be the most likely to have their account cloned, but these days I guess anyone who "uses their name professionally" might need to protect themselves from cloned accounts and imposters. Especially people who get into "heated subjects" and are likely to be targetted by someone with an axe to grind.

I think it should be offered to everyone as standard really... a "certification" mark if you supply proof of identity. My wife had her facebook account cloned by a malicious little **** half way around the world a few years ago, who she had argued with on a random page, and he had taken her pictures and name and started posting slanderous crap everywhere. It took facebook FOREVER to sort it out and have the account removed.

This is exactly why I do not participate in 'Social Media'. I think it's a 'scary' thing.

[Maru]

Originally Posted by kirklancaster

This is exactly why I do not participate in 'Social Media'. I think it's a 'scary' thing.

Smart man

[Maru]

Originally Posted by Toy Soldier

As far as I know, it's just a confirmation of identity? Like they have supplied evidence to Twitter that they really are the person in their pic / bio, and not a "fake account". I guess back in it's earlier days it would mostly be celebrities that needed verified / official accounts because they would be the most likely to have their account cloned, but these days I guess anyone who "uses their name professionally" might need to protect themselves from cloned accounts and imposters. Especially people who get into "heated subjects" and are likely to be targetted by someone with an axe to grind.

I think it should be offered to everyone as standard really... a "certification" mark if you supply proof of identity. My wife had her facebook account cloned by a malicious little **** half way around the world a few years ago, who she had argued with on a random page, and he had taken her pictures and name and started posting slanderous crap everywhere. It took facebook FOREVER to sort it out and have the account removed.

It's not offered to everyone. It never used to even be something we could request I don't think? I remember first seeing it and looking it up to see how to get them and there wasn't an article. Sometimes a celebrity would have an account, we would know it, but they never received a checkmark for the longest time until they had more activity... enough to get noticed anyway.

Now they take requests, but they don't generally give it to them unless they meet some unknown criteria, and it's cherry picked. They decide who gets them.