News

Twitter Verification Badge Is Now Available To The Public

Twitter has relaunched its public verification program, allowing anyone who meets its qualification criteria to get their account verified.

Published

5 years ago

May 25, 2021

Joanna Melki

twitter's verification badge is now available to the public

Twitter’s account ownership verification program (aka Twitter verification program) launched in 2009 to reduce the risk of impersonation, but getting the strongly desired blue checkmark has been impossible for most users of the platform — until now.

After publishing a draft of its new verification policy last year, Twitter is now finally relaunching its public verification program, allowing anyone who meets its qualification criteria to get their account verified.

“We’re excited to share that starting today, we’ll begin rolling out our new verification application process and reviewing public applications for verification on Twitter,” writes Twitter in the official announcement. “Today’s application rollout marks the next milestone in our plans to give more transparency, credibility, and clarity to verification on Twitter.”

Twitter

According to Twitter’s updated verification criteria, the following six categories of accounts can now quality for verification:

Government
Companies, brands, and organizations
News organizations and journalists
Entertainment
Sports and gaming
Activists, organizers, and other influential individuals

Additional account categories are planned to be introduced later this year, and they should extend the verification criteria to encompass scientists, academics, and religious leaders.

Also Read: Twitter Is Testing Two New Useful Features

In addition to belonging to the right category, Twitter also wants users to behave well before verifying them. Everyone who has misbehaved on the platform during the last 12 months and has been suspended for seven days or 12 hours for breaking the rules will be automatically rejected.

How To Apply For Twitter Verification?

To apply for the blue Twitter checkmark, you need to:

Log in to your Twitter account.
Go to the Account Settings tab.
Choose Identity verification.
Provide your official email address, website, or government ID.
Wait up to several weeks for your account to be verified.

That’s right, Twitter said that the verification process could take up to several weeks, depending on the current demand. However, it should typically take only a few days. Users who end up rejected can reapply 30 days after receiving the decision.

News

Visa’s Return To Syria Starts With A Test And A Bank In Lebanon

Foreign visitors will be the first users to benefit, but whether Syria’s own banks and cardholders follow is still an open question.

Published

2 weeks ago

August 27, 2026

Dana Saadeh

visa's return to syria starts with a test and a bank in lebanon

Visa is returning to Syria. Its first live international card transaction in the country was a test rather than a launch, and the milestone event ran through a Lebanese bank.

The acquirer (the bank on the merchant’s side of a card payment) was Fransabank Lebanon, with Paymera as the other named partner. Nadim Moujaes, who heads a Fransabank Group subsidiary, describes the test as both the culmination of “longstanding efforts to link Syria back to international payment networks” and “the first step in a larger path”.

Syrian President Ahmed Al-Sharaa makes the first electronic payment in Syria using a @Visa card at a store in Damascus, following the lifting of US sanctions on Syria. pic.twitter.com/lpAN7nQ6Fc

— Tech Magazine (@TechMGZN) August 27, 2026

“We are excited to have successfully tested live transactions today as we plan to enable international visitors to use their Visa cards while in Syria,” says Leila Serhan, Visa’s senior vice president and group country manager for the North Africa, Levant and Pakistan region. Although a significant first step, that plan doesn’t come with a hard date for when a visitor’s card will work normally.

Mohammed Safwat Raslan, governor of the Central Bank of Syria, says the test paves the way for international card acceptance in Syria and that maintaining strong compliance, risk management and operational controls will remain essential. Serhan likewise stresses that Visa has worked within applicable legal, regulatory and compliance requirements. For a test transaction, it seems there was a great deal of attention paid to the rules, with the entire operation being carefully managed.

Also Read: Lebanon’s 5G Era Begins With 150 Stations And A $1M Budget

The test is the latest step in a sequence that began in December 2025, when Visa announced a strategic roadmap to support Syria’s integration into the global digital economy. In February 2026 it hosted its first industry gathering of banks, ecosystem partners and policymakers in Damascus and, the same month, signed an agreement with Syria’s Ministry of Communications and Information Technology in San Francisco.

Michel Kattouah, Paymera’s CEO, called the test “the return of international card acceptance,” but while that’s positive news, there’s no word yet on when a Syrian bank will issue a Visa card to a Syrian customer.