Twitter removes blue badge from Vice President Venkaiah Naidu's personal account

Vice President M. Venkaiah Naidu. File pic/AFP

Twitter, on Saturday, removed the blue badge from the personal handle of Vice President M. Venkaiah Naidu, @MVenkaiahNaidu. Although, the official handle of the Vice President, @VPSecretariat, continues to have the blue badge.

According to Twitter, 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. It aims to encourage and maintain trust between users on the platform by confirming the identity of an account with Twitter in order to be verified.

As per Twitter, verification is part of the social media platforms' commitment to serve the public conversation by informing people of the authenticity of accounts with considering the public interest.

To be verified, an account must be notable, authentic, and active. The six types of notable accounts that Twitter currently verifies include Government Companies, brands and non-profit organisation, News organizations and journalists, Entertainment, Sports and esports, activists, organisers, and other influential individuals.

Twitter states that it may remove the blue verified badge and verified status of an account at any time and without notice if an account changes its username or an account becomes inactive or incomplete or if the owner of the account is no longer for which position they were initially verified and do not otherwise meet our criteria for verification since leaving such position.

Also Read: Twitter reopens blue badge verification after a brief pause

Twitter may also remove the blue verified badge from accounts that are found to be in severe or repeated violation of the Twitter Rules including impersonation or intentionally misleading people on Twitter by changing your display name or bio violations that result in immediate account suspension or repeated violations in Tweets, including but not limited to: hateful conduct policy, abusive behavior, glorification of violence policy, civic integrity policy, private information policy, or platform manipulation and spam policy.

The blue verified badge was removed from the Vice President's personal Twitter handle over inactivity, although several twitterati have put screenshots of handles that continue to have blue tick despite being inactive for over a year.

"The personal account of Venkaiah Naidu was inactive for six months and the blue badge has gone," said an official from Vice President's office.

Meanwhile, BJP Mumbai spokesperson Suresh Nakhua questioned Twitter for removing the blue badge from the Vice President's Twitter handle and termed it an 'assault on the Constitution of India'.

"Why did @Twitter @TwitterIndia remove Blue tick from the handle of Vice President of India Shri @MVenkaiahNaidu ji ? This is assault of Constitution of India," tweeted Nakhua.

In an ongoing tussle between Twitter and the India Government on complying with the new IT laws, the Ministry of Electronics and IT (MeitY) had asked the microblogging company to "stop beating around the bush" and "comply with the laws of the land".

In a statement on Thursday, MeitY asserted that India had a "glorious tradition of free speech and democratic practices" and Twitter's statements were an 'attempt to dictate its terms to the world's largest democracy.

On Monday, the Delhi high court had said that Twitter has to comply with the new Information Technology Rules for digital media if they have not been stayed. Justice Rekha Palli issued notices to the Centre and social media platform Twitter seeking their stand on a plea by a lawyer, Amit Acharya, claiming non-compliance of the rules by it.

While Twitter claimed before the court that it has complied with the rules and appointed a resident grievance officer, the central government disputed the claim.

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