Twitter to give Rs 82,000 checkmark for free to top 10,000 organisations and 500 advertisers

Twitter has decided to waive the $1,000 (Rs 82,000) monthly fee for its verification program to the top 500 advertisers and the top 10,000 organizations based on their follower count. The move comes as Twitter plans to roll out its new verification program and discontinue the old one in April.

The new program, called Verification for Organisations, will allow companies to keep their verified status for a monthly fee of $1,000 and denote specific accounts as "affiliated" for an additional $50 (Rs 4,100) per month.

As a hypothetical, a media organisation like Business Today may utilise the Twitter Verification for Organizations feature to authenticate its journalists, thereby ensuring that individuals seeking an interview or trying to connect with the writers/editors are genuinely associated with the publication. However, it should be noted that the India Today Group, which owns Business Today, has not announced any intention to use this feature at present.

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By offering free verification to major advertisers and organizations, Twitter hopes to avoid a steep price hike in verification that could affect its community. Twitter users rely on verified accounts to ensure the information they receive is legitimate, and the company does not want to lose credibility with its users.

The decision is also meant to appease advertisers, whose relationship with Twitter has been strained, causing a drop in the company's ad revenue.

However, the move may create a barrier for new companies to build an audience on Twitter, as they will have to compete with verified brands or pay $1,000 per month to get their checkmarks.

Impersonation is a significant risk on Twitter, and the platform has put in place safeguards to prevent bad actors from gaining access to verified accounts. As Twitter discontinues its legacy verification program and introduces the new one, impersonators and scammers may test the platform's security systems in other creative ways, creating a risk for users.

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