Twitter verification

[cbsc]

Twitter recently opened up verification to everyone:

 

https://blog.twitter.com/2016/announcing-an-application-process-for-verified-accounts-0

 

The following support article advises the necessary criteria and steps that need to be taken to get verified:

 

https://support.twitter.com/articles/20174631

 

I double checked that our official school account met all of the criteria, and submitted an application on 20th July. Two days later I received the following email from Twitter:

 

"We reviewed the account, and unfortunately it is not eligible to be verified at this time. Please visit our Help Center for more information about the types of accounts we verify."

 

Has anyone else submitted an application, and been successful? There is no explanation as to why they have rejected our application. The only thing I can think of is that a school is not determined to be of public interest by Twitter?!

[Guest obsidianpillar]

Twitter recently opened up verification to everyone:

 

https://blog.twitter.com/2016/announcing-an-application-process-for-verified-accounts-0

 

The following support article advises the necessary criteria and steps that need to be taken to get verified:

 

https://support.twitter.com/articles/20174631

 

I double checked that our official school account met all of the criteria, and submitted an application on 20th July. Two days later I received the following email from Twitter:

 

"We reviewed the account, and unfortunately it is not eligible to be verified at this time. Please visit our Help Center for more information about the types of accounts we verify."

 

Has anyone else submitted an application, and been successful? There is no explanation as to why they have rejected our application. The only thing I can think of is that a school is not determined to be of public interest by Twitter?!

 

I'd submitted an application for an account I own (not going mention it here). I also met the criteria with the header, corporate E-Mail address, picture etc. I also wasn't accepted. I believe we now have to wait 30 days before attempting to re-verify. Is your LEA verified on Twitter if they hold an account? Might be worth getting in contact with them if they're not aware of Verification being opened up to everyone asking them to submit an application on your behalf?

 

I think "public interest" is what's the deciding factor. However as Twitter doesn't specifically define "public interest" other than "musicians, politicians..." etc. It doesn't mention Schools. However the account I submitted, does match the criteria.

 

It's strange. However out of however million Twitter users, there's less than 200K verified. Unless they'll look to see who keeps requesting verification rather than the one-time users looking to obtain the Verification tick for "bragging rights" as I've seen many "normal" users attempt to do.

 

Hope this helps.

 

Tom

[cbsc]

I'd submitted an application for an account I own (not going mention it here). I also met the criteria with the header, corporate E-Mail address, picture etc. I also wasn't accepted. I believe we now have to wait 30 days before attempting to re-verify. Is your LEA verified on Twitter if they hold an account? Might be worth getting in contact with them if they're not aware of Verification being opened up to everyone asking them to submit an application on your behalf?

 

I think "public interest" is what's the deciding factor. However as Twitter doesn't specifically define "public interest" other than "musicians, politicians..." etc. It doesn't mention Schools. However the account I submitted, does match the criteria.

 

It's strange. However out of however million Twitter users, there's less than 200K verified. Unless they'll look to see who keeps requesting verification rather than the one-time users looking to obtain the Verification tick for "bragging rights" as I've seen many "normal" users attempt to do.

 

Hope this helps.

 

Tom

 

Many thanks for the advice. Our LEA is indeed verified on Twitter. However I've noticed that you must be logged in to the account that you want to verify - you cannot edit the username field - so I'm not sure our LEA would be able to submit a request on our behalf.

 

When completing the application, and upon confirming that ours is a company account, it prompts you to include a minimum of 2 URLs to support the application (and up to 5). I used our school website address, and provided links to our Ofsted page, our profile on EduBase & the school guide websites, and our FB profile. I'd be interested to get any thoughts on other URLs we could use instead that may be more effective next time we apply.

 

I would also be interested to hear from anyone that has been successful, and what they wrote as a supporting argument as to why the account should be verified.

 

It would be an odd decision if Twitter have come to the conclusion that UK schools are not of public interest. Perhaps a hidden criteria that we're not being told about concerns the number of followers or tweets? We have close to 2000 followers, and 1500 tweets.

[matt40k]

Out of interest, do you use Twitter to publish information like the school is closed today because of flooding? And if you did, would parents accept that or would they then check the website or phone the school? What would you do if someone maliciously did that? Whats the impact?

 

I think Twitter is working down in turns of potentially affect users - from millions down to tens of thousands and schools aren't quite at that level... Yet. Also its alot of admin cost doing it. In theory they could use edubase data to for school website url then craw it looking for twitter ids, but edubase isnt always up to date, nor is nominet data and that still only works for the UK

[Guest obsidianpillar]

Many thanks for the advice. Our LEA is indeed verified on Twitter. However I've noticed that you must be logged in to the account that you want to verify - you cannot edit the username field - so I'm not sure our LEA would be able to submit a request on our behalf.

 

When completing the application, and upon confirming that ours is a company account, it prompts you to include a minimum of 2 URLs to support the application (and up to 5). I used our school website address, and provided links to our Ofsted page, our profile on EduBase & the school guide websites, and our FB profile. I'd be interested to get any thoughts on other URLs we could use instead that may be more effective next time we apply.

 

I would also be interested to hear from anyone that has been successful, and what they wrote as a supporting argument as to why the account should be verified.

 

It would be an odd decision if Twitter have come to the conclusion that UK schools are not of public interest. Perhaps a hidden criteria that we're not being told about concerns the number of followers or tweets? We have close to 2000 followers, and 1500 tweets.

 

Normally if your Verified you get a number of extra options. I was under the impression that if the owner of the account was verified and you had other accounts/business' under your jurisdiction you would be able to make a valid case in getting the other accounts verified by getting in contact with Twitter Support.

 

With the application I also referenced the Wikipedia page where the account was mentioned on. Don't know weather that strengthened or weakened my application given that the article is editable by any user and wasn't "locked" as some pages are.

 

The account I referenced previously had less than 1000 followers, however had just under 20 other "verified" users following it. That being said, I've seen verified accounts with only 200 followers.

 

Good luck. If you do get verified, let us know how you managed to accomplish it!

 

Cheers,

 

Tom

[X-13]

Just requested verification on both my accounts because:

 

A - I do YouTube/Twitch stuff, which has the potential for trolls to make fake accounts.

 

And, more importantly, B - why not.

[DJ-1701]

Just requested verification on both my accounts because:

 

A - I do YouTube/Twitch stuff, which has the potential for trolls to make fake accounts.

 

And, more importantly, B - why not.

 

I'm confused, which one of you is 'real'?

[X-13]

I'm confused, which one of you is 'real'?

 

'Real' is a brand account.

[MrKJLS]

So I may of tried this on my personal account to see what happens

[X-13]

So I may of tried this on my personal account to see what happens

 

I'm calling it now. They'll say no.

 

They said no to me, and I've got a semi-legit excuse.

[MrKJLS]

I'm calling it now. They'll say no.

 

They said no to me, and I've got a semi-legit excuse.

Haha, I'm betting on no as well. But I might get lucky.

[AJWhite1970]

Sorry to dig this one back up but has anyone actually managed to get their school verified? I've tried on our main account, 1200 followers, 3500 tweets etc and had the request denied despite sending every link I could think of and writing a nice letter in the 5000 character comment section...

 

Anyone managed to find a winning combo?

Andrew

[X-13]

Anyone managed to find a winning combo?

 

Be part of the San Francisco social justice clique and/or know the right people, apparently.