Twitter's Verified Identity Crisis

> Without knowing what makes an account badge-worthy, the only irrefutable significance of a verified badge is that the account has Twitter's approval. By making the badge exclusive to a small portion of users, and keeping the requirements for a badge secret, Twitter has turned their “badge of identity” into a “badge of approval.”

Spot on.

It has been always unclear as to the reason or knowhow as to 'why' a particular user has a 'verified checkmark', other than having some sort of following as one of the requirements, but even that is inconsistent. But still, it really does sound like a 'badge of approval' based on some secret criteria.

I wrote this before the Minneapolis riots, so I don't mention Pres. Trump's tweet about the riots, or the implications of Twitter's response. I'll discuss that another time.