I’m still very much trying to process my thoughts around this, so forgive me for not providing super in-depth analysis.

But this week has exposed so many problems with Twitter’s verification program that have nothing to do w/the individuals being verified, by the way.
This week, a lot of notable women in tech got verified, after years of appealing to the service & even applying for formal verification shes ago.

None knew how the decision to verify them was made, and why now. Most wanted verification for access to anti-harassment tools.
I haven’t seen the functionality available to verified accounts, but from what I understand they have access to some advanced features & being verified also protects against dealing w/impersonators & other things.

This functionality Twitter makes available to only 350K ppl.
So we know that Twitter has advanced capabilities that combat against harassment that many people on this platform face, but make it available to only a sliver of users.

Users who have access via a program that, early on, primarily highlighted celebrities and journalists.
The concept that having a “blue check” means that you’re famous has NOT gone away despite Twitter briefly opening verification back in 2016 & widening its definition of “notable people”.

So we also have no idea who many are but we know Twitter endorses them via verification.
It creates a weird hierarchy on here that’s hard to ignore.

It means millions of users, who are “not notable” by Twitter definition, have little recourse for dealing w/harassment, *or* to even have their expertise recognized cos there’s no check next to their name.
And for those who are verified, we don’t know the criteria used and in many cases, the wonderful folks who have been verified don’t know either.

I just don’t know how this fosters an environment that doesn’t lead to resentment among other things.

And it’s Twitter’s doing.
To be perfectly clear cos I know some folks love being pedantic on here: the problem is with the verification *program* itself. Few people have any say in getting verified.

I’m just sad that Twitter is fine w/making verification about exclusivity instead of authentication.
You can follow @radiomorillo.
Tip: mention @twtextapp on a Twitter thread with the keyword “unroll” to get a link to it.

Latest Threads Unrolled: