Babu Owino threatens to quit if twitter does not verify him.
Recently Twitter announced that some accounts may not be verified because of certain reasons such as content material but they also admitted that the app had an issue.
A few months ago Raila Odinga Jnr made a bit of noise on Twitter since he did not receive his verification badge but at the same time, Babu Owino who is the MP for Embakasi revealed that there’s been a parody account running successfully as Baby Owino and that account is verified.
The user has however been unverified as of writing this article.
The MP Tweeted.
’If Twitter won’t verify my real account within the next few weeks then I’m sorry I will exit Twitter.Can’t/won’t settle for less at all’’
Why is the blue verified badge of Twitter so important?
Having the badge lets people know that you’re not being impersonated which means if someone else creates an account using your name it will be easier for people to know that it’s not you based on the number of followers and the badge.
Twitter had clarified about the badge in a blog post:
‘’Over the past several months, we’ve been working to bring clarity to the verification eligibility criteria and launched a new policy shaped by public feedback. We also started enforcing that policy by automatically removing the verified badge from accounts that no longer meet the updated criteria for verification, such as those that are inactive or incomplete. We’re grateful for all who participated in our public feedback period and shared ideas for how we can improve verification on Twitter’’
Twitter verified several fake accounts
After the new verification process went live, questions were raised after a number of accounts were seen with the blue badge. Data scientist Conspirador Norteño discovered six verified accounts that had been verified despite being created recently according to a report published by the Daily Dot. None of these accounts had posted a single tweet, and two of them even appeared to be stock images while others seem to have been created with artificial intelligence.
Dozens of the accounts’ followers according to the report also looked the same as well, using computer-generated photos of humans and cats for their profiles.
Twitter went ahead and admitted that it has verified some fake accounts. Speaking to Daily Dot Twitter said “We mistakenly approved the verification applications of a small number of inauthentic (fake) accounts,”
“We have now permanently suspended the accounts in question, and removed their verified badge, under our platform manipulation and spam policy.”
According to Twitter, the blue badge is one of the ways to help people distinguish the authenticity of accounts that are of high public interest.
