Twitter removes blue tick from VP Venkaiah Naidu, Mohan Bhagwat's accounts, restores it within hours

Venkaiah Naidu

Microblogging platform Twitter on June 5 removed the blue verification tick from the personal accounts of M Venkaiah Naidu, the Vice President of India, and Mohan Bhagwat, the chief of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).

After the removal of the blue verified badge drew attention on social media, Twitter moved to restore it on Naidu's handle. Subsequently, the verified tick on Bhagwat's account was also restored.

According to Twitter, the blue verified badge lets people know that an account of public interest is authentic. To receive the blue badge, the account must be authentic, notable, and active.

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Furthermore, among the types of notable accounts, the government accounts include accounts of current key government officials and offices, including heads of state, elected officials, appointed ministers, institutional entities, ambassadors, and official spokespeople.

Twitter's terms of services state that the platform may remove the blue verified badge and verified status of a Twitter account at any time and without notice.

"You may lose your badge if you change your account name (@handle), if your account becomes inactive or incomplete, or if you are no longer in the position you initially were verified for – such as an elected government official who leaves office – and you do not otherwise meet our criteria for verification," it noted.

Other reasons that qualify for removal of the blue verified badge include impersonation, severe violations, repeated violations that include hateful and abusive tweets, glorifies violence, among others.

However, removal of the badge based on repeated violations is assessed on a case-by-case basis and is not automatic.

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The blue verified badge was removed from the Vice President of India's personal Twitter handle over inactivity, although several Twitter users shared screenshots of handles that continue to have blue tick despite being inactive for over a year, news agency ANI reported.

"The personal account of Venkaiah Naidu was inactive for six months and the blue badge has gone," an official from Vice President's Office told ANI. The account had been inactive for almost a year as the last tweet was on July 23, 2020.