Twitter to Introduce 'Verified' Accounts for Celebs, Politicos

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on June 8, 2009 - 1:08pm.

San Francisco - Twitter has announced that this summer it plans to introduce "Verified Accounts" to authenticate that a particular account really belongs to a particular person, in the wake of a lawsuit filed against the company by St. Louis Cardinals manager Tony La Russa over a fake account in his name.

"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," co-founder Biz Stone wrote in a blog post.

"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."

Stone also stated that Twitter "suspends, deletes, or transfers control of accounts known to be impersonation," as it did in the case of the fake La Russa account.

The company added that Verified Accounts will initially be available to public officials and agencies, famous artists, athletes, "and other well known individuals at risk of impersonation."

http://snipurl.com/jqbkn (DMW previous coverage)