Kenya’s Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua has lost his Twitter Verification badge, becoming the first high-ranking government official to have his verification revoked under the new Twitter policy.
The Deputy President, who has over 500,000 followers lost his verification on Sunday after failing to enroll for Twitter Blue, a payment feature of Twitter that lets one maintain their badge.
Individuals who want to maintain their Blue Badge are paying at least 8 US Dollars per month. There is an option of paying per year too. Government officials, however, were to pay at least 100,000 each per month to maintain the badge, a move that would cost the government of Kenya at least 100 million shillings annually.
President William Ruto still has his badge intact. It is not clear whether Twitter will be taking away the verification badges of Presidents and Prime Ministers around the world.
Most government officials have opted to apply for verification as individuals where they are paying between 8 and 11 US Dollars.
What is in a Twitter Verification?
Twitter verification comes with a certain sense of pride. It means the account is genuine and recognized by Twitter after an audit/review.
Twitter verification helps people identify between genuine and parody accounts, especially when it comes to official government accounts.
Twitter verification comes with additional features such as 2-factor authentication, the ability to edit tweets, post text beyond 240 characters, posting long videos among others.
What is easy to be verified now?
Getting Twitter verification is the easiest process at the moment. Initially, it was next to impossible as people had to fulfill so many things before being verified. The process took ages and the badges never came.
Currently, anyone with 8 US Dollars can be verified. All they need is to have their location in countries the feature is available like the United States of America, customize their accounts and make the payment.
