Twitter removes verified blue badge from Vice President Venkaiah Naidu's personal account

New Delhi: In an incident that shows that Twitter can withdraw the blue verified badge against any verified account irrespective of the importance of the position of the account holder, the social media platform removed the blue badge from the personal Twitter handle of Vice President of India M. Venkaiah Naidu, @MVenkaiahNaidu, on Saturday.

Although, the official handle of the Vice President of India @VPSecretariat continues to have the blue badge. According to Twitter, the blue verified badge on Twitter lets people know that an account of public interest is authentic.

To receive the blue badge, your account must be authentic, notable, and active. It aims to encourage and maintain trust between users on the platform by confirming the identity of an account with Twitter in order to be verified. 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.

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.

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.

The blue verified badge was removed from the Vice President of India`s personal Twitter handle over inactivity, although several twitteratis 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," said an official from Vice President.

Meanwhile, BJP Mumbai spokesperson Suresh Nakhua questioned Twitter on removing the blue badge from the Vice President`s Twitter handle and termed it an `assault on the Constitution of India`."Why did @Twitter @TwitterIndia remove Blue tick from the handle of Vice President of India Shri @MVenkaiahNaidu ji ? This is assault of Constitution of India," tweeted Nakhua today.

In an ongoing tussle between Twitter and the Government of India on complying with the new IT laws, the Ministry of Electronics and IT (MeitY) had asked the microblogging company to "stop beating around the bush" and "comply with the laws of the land". In a statement on Thursday, MeitY asserted that India had a "glorious tradition of free speech and democratic practices" and Twitter`s statements were an `attempt to dictate its terms to the world`s largest democracy.

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