Can You Lose Verification on Twitter?

Those who want to learn how to get verified on Twitter should understand what it means. Those who are considered notable in their fields or major influencers can get a blue badge next to their name showing that their account truly belongs to them. This prevents malicious users from pretending that a celebrity has said something they haven’t. 

Once you have reached verification, you may be worried about losing the status. Fortunately, Twitter’s guidelines about how you could lose your status are fairly straightforward. There are three ways you can lose your Twitter verification and this post will cover them.

1. Changing Your Name or Call Tag

If you change your username or call tag, you will lose your verified status. This is due to people selling Twitter accounts occasionally if they are part of a brand. Twitter wants to ensure that verified accounts belong to the person they verified. As someone could change their account name to someone else’s after verification, the tag will drop off to make sure a user can’t be malicious. 

Those who have a verification tag can often reach out to the platform and let them know they wish to change their name. If you are in this boat, let them know what you want to change your name to and why you want to change it. Twitter may change it for you and allow you to keep the verification tag as long as you are staying on brand. 

What Can You Change on Twitter Without Losing Verification?

Your username or call tag are the only things you cannot change if you want to keep your Twitter verification. That means you can change any of the following without worry:

• Your profile picture (photo or logo)
• Update your bio
• Your email address
• Account and privacy settings can be changed (except for turning on protected Tweets)
• You actual name (it is only your username/call tag that cannot be changed)

2. Breaking Twitter’s Terms of Service

Although the verification process was only meant to prove that a channel belonged to the claimed person, people often mistake it for meaning that Twitter approves of or endorses the person. Therefore, you can lose your verification status if you break Twitter’s Terms of Service. 

As long as you are acting responsibly online, you probably won’t have to worry about losing your verification status on the platform. While Twitter’s list of rules is longer and more in-depth, here is a broad idea of the things you aren’t allowed to do on the platform:

• Abusive/Hateful speech or conduct

  You cannot harass anyone in any way or promote hatred toward anyone. This is especially true when expressing disdain for people based on their nationality, ethnicity, race, sexual orientation, gender (or gender identity), religion, disability or disease, age, or caste.

• Self Harm or Suicide

  Images or threats indicating that you want to hurt yourself or commit suicide are taken very seriously on the platform. If you start making threats or post images that may indicate you are going to harm yourself, you will likely get your verified badge removed.

• Violence/Terrorism

  Any threats of violence toward any group or person or glorifying violence is against Twitter’s rules.

• Exploitation of Children

  Twitter has a zero-tolerance for child porn and any sexual commentary or content involving or aimed toward minors. 

• Illegal Services

  You cannot use Twitter to engage in any illegal activities or abusive behavior of any kind. People will report you and if Twitter sees a violation, you will likely lose your badge (or be banned from the platform altogether).

• No Adult, Graphic, or Violent Images

  Don’t post anything that shows violence or adult content in live videos or in headers or profiles that can easily be publicly seen. 

• Not Respecting the Privacy of Others

  Do not dox other users or companies and don’t post sensitive information about anyone without their permission. Not only could you lose your verified account if you break this rule on Twitter, but you could also be removed if you share private information with news organizations and journalists.

• Impersonation/Brand Theft

  Do not pretend to be a brand or person that you are not. Don’t use trademarked images or content in a way where you are passing it off as your own. You will likely be removed from the verification program if you are caught intentionally misleading people.

3. Turning on Protected Tweets

It is unknown if turning on protected tweets will still make you lose your verification status at this point as it has been taken off of Twitter’s verification page. In the past, turning on protected Tweets would cause people to lose the blue checkmark, presumably because the account would no longer be public. 

As most notable figures and brands work with the public, you are unlikely to want to make your account private by turning on protected Tweets in any case, but it is something you will want to bear in mind. 

4. Changing Your Account’s Purpose

While this rule shouldn’t affect most personality-based accounts, it could affect accounts based on niches. If Twitter verifies an account for a small business, whose owner then decides to change the account to something else entirely, that account may lose its verification.

Side-stepping in a niche will typically be allowed and go unnoticed, but it Twitter sees that an account is operating under different pretenses than it was when it was submitted for verification, the platform may take away its status.

5. Inactive And Incomplete Accounts

You can also lose your blue verified badge if you haven’t logged into your Twitter account for a while. While this isn’t an account suspension, Twitter tends to prioritize active accounts with the blue tick. The good news is, that once you have been initially verified, you will be able to get your verification badge back when you log back into your account.

The following Twitter users are influential individuals who have been given an immediate account suspension or have lost their blue verified badge in the past:

1. Donald Trump

   Arguably the most famous account that was banned on the platform was that of the president. Twitter announced that they had banned Donald Trump’s account (@realDonaldTrump) shortly after the capital raid on January 6, 2021.

2. Danny DeVito

   The famous actor’s account was shown to have lost the blue verification badge on August 19, 2021. While some thought this may be due to his comments about the Nabisco workers, Twitter stated it was due to his account being incomplete.

3. One Direction

   The band One Direction lost their blue badge on Twitter due to inactivity. The badge was removed on August 29, 2021. The members of the band still each still have their own personal blue check mark.