Twitter's Verification System Is Broken
On August 31, 2016, YouTube video gamer and comedian Felix Kjellberg (a.k.a. "PewDiePie") posted a video called "Why I Got Unverified".
In that video, he explained that Twitter's broken verification system is what led him to unverify his account. He also rallied other YouTubers to support him and encouraged his fans to add a globe symbol to their Twitter profile.
Shortly after the video was posted, many of his fans were influenced to partake in his aggressive retaliation against Twitter's verification system.
Here is the official video that PewDiePie posted regarding Twitter's broken verification system:
Here are the key points mentioned in the video:
1.) It's unfair for verified accounts to seem cooler than non-verified accounts.
The blue tick-mark badge that can only be found in verified Twitter account profiles make it seem as though verified accounts hold a much more prestigious status than non-verified accounts in the Twitter community.
2.) Verified accounts get too much unwanted attention.
Not only do verified accounts get attention from fans, but also from spammers and attention-seeking users. Because of that, users of verified accounts deal with a ton of unfiltered notifications that hinder their main purpose for creating their accounts in the first place: to communicate with and listen to their fans.
3.) There are non-verified accounts that get as much attention and believability as verified accounts.
PewDiePie is not the first Twitter user to think that the verification system is broken; there are other users who don't care whether or not the accounts they're following are verified. Also, sadly, there are users who believe in illegitimate tweets from unverified accounts. Some of those accounts include those that seem like news networks.
Before posting the video, PewDiePie jokingly tweeted about how he and another fellow YouTuber, Sean McLoughlin (a.k.a. "Jacksepticeye), got their accounts unverified because they "joined ISIS", even though it was only PewDiePie who got his account unverified.
Some fans and news media took that tweet seriously and commented on how bad it was for both YouTubers to joke about ISIS.
Twitter has yet to release a response to PewDiePie's concerns.
