Do you really think blue check marks are ‘meaningless’? Are you thinking of them in the context of, among your peers who has blue checks and who doesn’t being somewhat arbitrary? Because for sure if you’re part of a professional community that is common - you’ll find academics and journalists and medical professionals and so on all have very random experiences with blue check marks, much like tech does.
But at the same time, in aggregate, blue check marks do provide some degree of legitimacy to accounts - yes, this account is that person you know from outside twitter.
But twitter don’t do a great job of explaining how they verified an account, or even who they verified it to be. As has recently gone viral, twitter gave @sistersofmercy a blue check mark, because they really are the catholic institute of that name - not the band (@tsomofficial doesn’t have a blue check mark ...)
I think there’s the basis of something interesting in ‘verified accounts’ - and for sure they’re flawed - but I don’t think ‘meaningless’ is correct.
What do you think of Yonatan Zunger's proposed fix, to verify facts and not people?
So @sistersofmercy might get a Verified Badge saying "Religious Institute, Ireland", and @tsomofficial might get a Verified Badge saying "Musical Group, UK".
He wrote this in response to the Jason Kessler kerfuffle, well before the "factcheckUK" stunt, but it would have actually solved that too! Imagine seeing the username "factcheckUK" with the Verified Badge "Conservative and Unionist Party, UK 🇬🇧".
But at the same time, in aggregate, blue check marks do provide some degree of legitimacy to accounts - yes, this account is that person you know from outside twitter.
But twitter don’t do a great job of explaining how they verified an account, or even who they verified it to be. As has recently gone viral, twitter gave @sistersofmercy a blue check mark, because they really are the catholic institute of that name - not the band (@tsomofficial doesn’t have a blue check mark ...)
I think there’s the basis of something interesting in ‘verified accounts’ - and for sure they’re flawed - but I don’t think ‘meaningless’ is correct.