The move by Elon Musk to get rid of legacy verification for all accounts including organizations is set to have far-reaching effects on regular users, well, that is unless the organizations pay a fee of up to $1,000 a month to keep their gold verification status along with an additional $50 per month for each affiliated account. The verification program was announced on Friday, when Twitter also said it would begin “winding down” its legacy verification program from April 1.
One of the main reasons organizations go through the verification process is to assure their customers that they are dealing with legitimate and trustworthy entities. With the removal of this verification feature, customers will be exposed to impersonation, leading to fraud and other financial crimes.
An example of parody accounts replying to a customer query on Twitter
For customer care accounts for banks and telcos in Kenya, the loss of their legacy verification status could be particularly devastating, as it is a common practice for fraudsters to create fake social media accounts purporting to be genuine service providers.
These fake accounts can be used to steal sensitive customer information, leading to financial losses and reputational damage for the affected organizations.
The loss of verification status will make it harder for customers to differentiate between legitimate organizations and fraudsters. This will lead to a decline in customer trust, which is essential for any organization that wants to maintain a healthy customer base.
In order for organizations to get the gold verification, they can join a waitlist for getting the verification checkmark. Any individual person’s Twitter account affiliated with a verified organization will be automatically verified.
Twitter says organizations are all types–businesses, non-profits, and government institutions. Any organization that purchases a subscription to Verified Organizations will receive a gold checkmark and square avatar if they are a business or non-profit, or a grey checkmark and circular avatar if they are a governmental or multilateral organization.
In addition, organizations can choose to affiliate any individual or entity associated with them. An affiliated account receives verification (denoted by either a blue, gold, or grey checkmark) as well as an affiliate badge, a small image of their parent company’s profile picture, displayed next to their checkmark. Clicking or pressing this badge takes a user directly to the affiliated organization, making it a great driver of followers from your whole network on Twitter.
