Twitter restores verified blue tick on Vice President Venkaiah Naidu's personal handle

Microblogging social media site Twitter on Saturday removed the blue verified tick badge from the personal handle of India's Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu for a few hours. The blue tick badge was later restored after a few hours. However, the official handle of the Vice President of India @VPSecretariat, which is run by the Vice President's Secretariat, continues to have the blue badge.

All about Twitter verification

According to Twitter, the blue verified badge on Twitter lets people know that an account of public interest is authentic. To be verified, an account must be notable, authentic, and active.

The six types of notable accounts that Twitter currently verifies include government companies, brands and non-profit organisation, news organizations and journalists, entertainment, sports and esports, activists, organisers, and other influential individuals.

As per Twiter, verification is part of the social media platforms' commitment to serve the public conversation by informing people of the authenticity of accounts with considering the public interest.

Reason for removing blue verified badge

The blue verified badge was removed from the Vice President of India's personal Twitter handle over inactivity, although several people on Twitter have put screenshots of handles that continue to have blue tick despite being inactive for over a year.

"The personal account of Venkaiah Naidu was inactive for six months and the blue badge has gone," ANI quoted an official from Vice President as saying.

Twitter states that it may remove the blue verified badge and verified status of a Twitter account at any time and without notice if an account changes its username (@handle) or an account becomes inactive or incomplete or if the owner of the account is no longer for which position they were initially verified and do not otherwise meet our 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 including impersonation or intentionally misleading people on Twitter by changing your display name or bio violations that result in immediate account suspension or 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.

(With ANI inputs)