About verified accounts

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.

Notable 

Your account must represent or otherwise be associated with a prominently recognized individual or brand, in line with the notability criteria described below. In addition to confirming the identity of the controller of the account, Twitter will verify the following types of accounts based on the criteria described. In all categories, Twitter may independently confirm qualifying affiliation through business partnerships or direct outreach: 

• Government: Accounts of key government officials and offices, including heads of state, elected officials, appointed ministers, institutional entities, ambassadors, and official spokespeople. Official candidates for state- or national-level public office may also be verified in certain countries, where available resources allow us to do so fairly and equitably.
  
  To qualify, there must be a public reference to the account on an official government or party site or publication, or multiple references in news media. 
  
  Official accounts of public utilities and other services may also be verified, as may people in leadership positions and official spokespeople. 
  
  
• Companies, brands, and organizations: Accounts representing prominent organizations, and secondary affiliated accounts, including companies, brands, non-profit organizations, as well as their leaders and other prominent executives. To qualify as prominent, accounts must meet 2 of the following requirements:
  • presence in public indices, including but not limited to Google Trends, public stock exchanges, stable Wikipedia articles that meet the encyclopedia’s notability standards, and databases such as GlobalGiving;
  • 3 or more featured references within the 6 months prior to applying in news outlets that meet the News criteria below; or
  • follower count in the top .1% of active accounts located in the same geographic region.
    
    
• News organizations and journalists: Any official accounts of qualifying news organizations, as well individual accounts of journalists employed by qualifying organizations may be verified, if the account is public (does not have protected Tweets) and refers directly to the name and official URL of the qualifying organization and otherwise meets the criteria laid out in this policy.
  
  Qualifying organizations include newspapers; magazines; broadcast, cable, satellite, and streaming TV and radio news networks, stations and programs; digital news publishers; podcasts; and similar media, and must adhere to recognized professional standards for journalism such as those laid out by the Society of Professional Journalists, Independent Press Standards Organization, and International Federation of Journalists, or have committed to the International Fact-Checking Network's code of principles.
  
  Independent or freelance journalists may be verified if they can provide at least 3 bylines/credits in qualifying publications published within the 6 months prior to applying.
  
  
• Entertainment: Accounts of major entertainment companies, such as film studios, TV networks, and music entities may be verified. Official accounts of productions associated with these entities, such as films, events/festivals, or TV shows, may be verified if:
  • the connection to a verified organization is clear on the account’s profile; and
  • the website associated with the production or entity, or similar official public source, includes a link to the profile

Individual accounts of artists, performers, directors, and others in similar public-facing roles associated with such entities or their productions may be verified if:

• the website associated with a verified entity, or similar official public source, includes a link to the profile;
  and
• they have 5 production credits on their IMDB profile, or
• they have 3 or more featured references within the 6 months prior to applying in news outlets that meet the News criteria above.

Established digital content creators may be verified if they have consistently published engaging, original content (regardless of platform) for at least 6 months prior to applying and meet the criteria listed below for other influential individuals.

• Sports and gaming: Accounts of professional sports leagues, teams, rostered athletes, and coaches listed on the official team website with a link to the account, or in sports data services such as Sportradar may be verified, as may those of athletes participating in global competitions such as the Olympics and Paralympics. Official team pages of club and collegiate teams may also be verified. We will not verify amateur athletes who compete at the collegiate level (or lower) nor in official minor leagues unless they meet the criteria for influential individuals verification below.
  
  Accounts of professional esports leagues, teams, rostered players, and coaches listed on the official team website or who have 3 or more featured references within the 6 months prior to applying in news outlets such as Kotaku, Polygon, or IGN may be verified. Official accounts for game titles and related accounts may also be verified.
  
  
• Activists, organizers, and other influential individuals: Outside the professional categories defined above, people who are using Twitter effectively to bring awareness, share information, and galvanize community members around a cause, to bring about socioeconomic, political, or cultural change, or to otherwise foster community, may be verified.
  
  Accounts of such individuals and others that do not meet the specific criteria in the categories above may be verified if they:
  
  • demonstrate consistent usage of Twitter in the six months prior to applying;
  • generally abide by the Twitter Rules; 
  • do not primarily post content that harasses, shames, or insults any individual or group—especially on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, religious affiliation, age, disability, medical/genetic condition, status as a veteran, status as a refugee, or status as an immigrant—or content that promotes the supremacy or interests of members of any group in a manner likely to be perceived as demeaning on the basis of these categories; and 
  • meet the following general criteria for notability – at least one from Column A and one from Column B*: 

*In response to current events, we may verify accounts meeting only criteria from Column B due to their expertise or public role in matters of high public interest, as well as their susceptibility to impersonation. For example:

• medical professionals during epidemics or other public health crises;
• activists and local political leaders in times of protest or in connection with a significant cultural event;
• public safety and journalist accounts reporting on natural disasters; or
• organizers, proponents, or founders of campaigns in support of civil or human rights. 

Twitter uses a mix of internal signals to evaluate the authenticity of a given account's followers and engagement count. We also assess a range of signals associated with third-party public resources submitted in support of applications for verification (such as how recently they were updated) to detect fraudulent submissions. We reserve the right to deny or revoke verification to any accounts that met any of the following criteria through artificial or inauthentic activity.

Active

Your account must be active with a record of adherence to the Twitter Rules. This means:

• Complete: You must have a profile name, and a profile image; 
• Active use: You must have logged into the account in the last six months;
• Security: The account must have a confirmed email address or phone number; and
• Twitter Rules: The account must not have had a 12-hour or 7-day lockout for violating the Twitter Rules in the past six months (excluding successful appeals). 

Note that we may make exceptions to the lockout requirement for new accounts from people and organizations in the categories defined above, and exceptions to the login requirement for accounts at especially high risk of impersonation.

Ineligible accounts

Certain accounts are ineligible for the blue badge, regardless of the above criteria, including: 

• Parody, newsfeed, commentary, and fan accounts; 
• Pets and fictional characters, unless directly affiliated with a verified Company, Brand, or Organization, or with a verified entertainment production, as described above;
• Accounts engaged in severe violations of our Platform manipulation and spam policy, such as  the buying and selling of followers and engagement; and 
• Accounts of individuals or groups associated with coordinated harmful activity, or hateful content as defined in Twitter’s Ads Policies, or that have been found to have committed gross human rights violations by an international court/tribunal, or a fact-finding mission or commission of inquiry authorized by an international organization, may be ineligible for verification – even if their activity on Twitter doesn’t violate the Twitter Rules.

Loss of verified status

In accordance with the Twitter Terms of Service, Twitter 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.

We may also remove the blue badge from accounts that are found to be in severe or repeated violation of the Twitter Rules. This includes: 

• Impersonation or Intentionally misleading people on Twitter by changing your display name or bio.
• Severe violations that result in immediate account suspension.
• Repeat violations in Tweets, including but not limited to: 
  • Hateful conduct
  • Abusive behavior
  • Glorification of violence
  • Civic integrity policy
  • Private information policy
  • Platform manipulation and spam policy

Removal of the badge based on repeated violations will be assessed on a case-by-case basis and is not automatic. 

Please note, we may suspend accounts that use imagery of, or similar to, the verification badge in a manner that may mislead the public about the account’s verification status.