Presently, only celebrities, public figures, and some businesses have the sought-after ‘Verified’ checkmark on their Twitter profiles. However, the platform’s CEO, Jack Dorsey, has proposed a new update to the platform: making verifications open to all. Addressing users via Periscope this past Thursday, he explained his idea:

“The intention is to open verification to everyone. And to do it in a way that’s scalable, where we’re not in the way and people can verify more facts about themselves, and we don’t have to be the judge or imply any bias on our part.” 

Jack Morse, a writer for Mashable, expresses the valid concern people have about the potential update:

What does this accomplish? What would actually be a useful update to Twitter’s verification system is a clear determination of what it means. When the company removed white nationalist Jason Kessler’s checkmark it did not do so because there was any doubt that the account in question was controlled by him. Instead, it appeared to be an attempt by the service to remove any associated clout that came with the verification. 

At present, the company states that “The blue verified badge on Twitter lets people know that an account of public interest is authentic.”

 Maybe Dorsey should figure out what, exactly, that means before he spreads around the verification love and takes Twitter one step closer to Facebookland. The unverifieds will thank him. 

Although shutting down scam accounts might be permissible, do we need to give everyone a ‘Verified’ checkmark as well? What do you think?