RSS blue tick row: Why does Twitter remove verified status? All you need to know

Twitter on Saturday removed the blue tick from the personal accounts of Vice President Venkaiah Naidu, RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat and a few other RSS functionaries for a brief period of time. By evening the blue ticks were restored. There has been no official statement by either the government or Twitter, though RSS functionaries have termed it as "tech feudalism by Twitter".

What is a blue tick?

A blue tick on Twitter is a verification badge which symbolises that the accounts are authentic. The social media platform has a set of rules to grant this verification badge.

Why did Twitter remove the blue tick? What does the rule say?

According to Twitter's rulebook verified badges may be automatically removed from inactive and incomplete accounts. There are other reasons for which an account may lose its verified status like hateful conduct etc. But inactivity has been cited as the reason for removing the blue ticks in these cases.

How does Twitter determine inactivity?

In its policy guideline, Twitter has mentioned that inactivity is based on logging in. "We encourage people to actively log in and use Twitter when they register an account. To keep your account active, be sure to log in at least every 6 months. Accounts may be permanently removed due to prolonged inactivity," it said.

Have these accounts been inactive?

The personal account of the Vice President has been inactive since 2020. The accounts of the RSS functionaries were also inactive for some time. The accounts of the RSS functionaries were made to check the spread of misinformation by parody accounts, it has been said.

Allegation of bias

The RSS has pointed out that several accounts have been inactive but they continue to remain verified. Many have pointed out the examples of Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley's Twitter accounts which have blue tick long after their death. It may be noted that Sushma Swaraj's Twitter account has been turned into a memory account and is now handled by Swaraj Kaushal.