The official Twitter handle for Professor Yemi Osinbajo, SAN, @ProfOsinbajo, Nigeria’s Vice President has become unverified.
Investigations by Techawk reveal that Twitter first suspended the account which has 2.1 million followers before restoring it with the Vice President’s profile picture and the blue verified badge of the account removed.
According to Twitter, “The blue verified badge lets people know that an account of public interest is authentic. It appears next to the name on an account’s profile and next to the account name in search results.”
Twitter is yet to give any reason for unverifying the account since Yemi Osinbajo is a public figure and this meets the guidelines for verifying an account.
However, the social media platform said clearly “It reserves the right to remove verification at any time without notice.” Reasons for removal may reflect behaviors on and off Twitter that include:
- Intentionally misleading people on Twitter by changing one’s display name or bio.
- Promoting hate and/or violence against, or directly attacking or threatening other people on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, religious affiliation, age, disability, or disease. Supporting organizations or individuals that promote the above.
- Inciting or engaging in harassment of others.
- Violence and dangerous behavior
- Directly or indirectly threatening or encouraging any form of physical violence against an individual or any group of people, including threatening or promoting terrorism
- Violent, gruesome, shocking, or disturbing imagery
- Self-harm, suicide
- Engaging in activity on Twitter that violates the Twitter Rules.
Other possible reasons why the verified badge was removed
*Yemi Osinbajo’s Account has been hacked
It is a surprise that the Twitter handle of Nigeria’s number 2 citizen got unverified. One of the reasons that may be considered is that the account has been hacked.
The Vice President has too many fake followers
Techawk used like tools like sparktoro.com and fakers.statuspeople.com. For Sparktoro, it 23.4% (499,069) Fake Followers (This tool defines “fake followers” as accounts that are unreachable and will not see the account’s tweets (either because they’re spam, bots, propaganda, etc. or because they’re no longer active on Twitter) while fakers.statuspeople.com says 14% of the followers are fake, 46% inactive and 40% good.
The Vice President while reacting to the loss through his media aide Laolu Akande tweeted that “there were failed attempt to gain unauthorized access to the Twitter Account.”
Yesterday, there were failed external attempts to gain unauthorized access to the Vice President’s Twitter Account. Since, we have been in contact with Twitter, securing the account, and forestalling a reoccurrence. The VP will continue to actively communicate with our citizens.
— Laolu Akande (@akandeoj) August 10, 2019
How to get verified on Twitter
Although the Twitter Verified account program is currently on hold and not accepting any new requests at this time. Here is the process for getting verified:
- Have a profile photo
- Have a cover photo
- Use your real, official full name on your profile
- Include a website that you have either for yourself, your business, your publication, etc.
- Confirmed email address and phone number listed
- Have a public account
- Fill out the verification form and providing necessary identification documents, such as a Passport or other government-issued identification documents
What types of accounts get verified?
An account may be verified if it is determined to be an account of public interest. Typically this includes accounts maintained by users in music, acting, fashion, government, politics, religion, journalism, media, sports, business, and other key interest areas. A verified badge does not imply an endorsement by Twitter.
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