Twitter to introduce 'Verified Accounts'
Jinfo Blog

8th June 2009

By Nancy Davis Kho

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Twitter is touted as an innovative new channel for broadcasting directly to consumers, a means of building a perception of a personal relationship between a celebrity, a brand, or an organization and its fans or detractors. Used properly, the argument goes, the microblogging service enables companies to engender trust and improve communications with customers, 140 characters at a time. So how do Brad Pitt's fans feel when they become a 'follower' of @braddadpitt only to read his latest tweet: 'Maddox had a great birthday yesteday[sic]. For his gift he wanted a little Mexican boy but we said no. We already have a gardner.[sic]' If the spelling error didn't give it away, the content should - it's not really Brad Pitt, of course. But naïve Twitter users might miss the irony; some of the tweets posted by the impersonator border on libelous, and at the very least the Pitt 'brand' could be adversely affected. But until now, there was no way for companies or individuals to confirm to their followers that they are the real deal. On June 6 Twitter founder Biz Stone (@biz) announced that it is rolling out 'Verified Accounts' in beta format over the summer. Stone wrote 'The experiment will begin with public officials, public agencies, famous artists, athletes, and other well known individuals at risk of impersonation. We hope to verify more accounts in the future but due to the resources required, verification will begin only with a small set…Initially, verification will not be tested with businesses. However, we do see an opportunity in that arena so we'll keep you posted when we have something to share'. The company chose to introduce the verification service, fast, after a suit was filed by St. Louis Cardinals baseball manager Tony La Russa filed on April 19 in the Superior Court of California in San Francisco. An impersonator had set up an account in La Russa's name and La Russa allegedly claims that the tweets were "derogatory and demeaning" and that the feed damaged his trademark rights. Stone's blog post indicates that Twitter will fight La Russa's suit, saying, 'With due respect to the man and his notable work, Mr. La Russa’s lawsuit was an unnecessary waste of judicial resources bordering on frivolous. Twitter’s Terms of Service are fair and we believe will be upheld in a court that will ultimately dismiss Mr. La Russa’s lawsuit'. One could argue that Twitter should have had account verification in place from the beginning, or that La Russa should be suing the imposter, not Twitter. But what's not up for debate is that as emergent social networking tools go mainstream, lawsuits cleaning up grey areas are sure to follow.

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