Journalism is intrinsic to democracy. In a democratic society, the role of journalism is to provide citizens with information, often about government actions, policies, and issues that affect their lives. Many people look to them as the first point of reference in regards to breaking news, world and local events. What journalists therefore say and report on can have a profound effect on the people that read or hear it. That is why I believe journalists should be verified on all social platforms as a default action and as a basic rule of thumb.

Unlike movie stars, athletes and influencers, who often command audiences in the millions, journalists are viewed as a source of information on current affairs. Their words are taken more literally and at face value than the previously mentioned profile types. Platforms therefore have a duty to make sure that those voices are not manipulated, taken out of context, faked or used to deceive their users. 

Journalists should also not have to pay for this verification. Journalists use social media as a tool to report with. It has become a fundamental part of their toolbox. Let me be clear as well. Twitter Blue is a premium service. It provides additional features that by all means should be charged for. Twitter, like any company, needs to generate revenue and premium features and services are part of that. I just don’t think a verification badge for journalists should be included in that charged offering.

Today, we launched a free service for journalists to create a verified account with Legitimate. We will absorb the costs of that verification. Every journalist on our platform is verified by default. Through a free API, we will let any platform or service verify if a user account on their platform belongs to a journalist on our system, and by proxy, they can offer a different badge or stamp to let people know that the person has been verified as a journalist via Legitimate. No other features or services need to be provided. 

For example: If a @twitterhandle gets sent to us via api, we can reply in less than a second, letting Twitter know that this handle belongs to a verified journalist on our system. The same for Facebook, Youtube and LinkedIn. We will also work with any other platforms that want to become involved. 

We are not verifying the words and actions of these journalists, we are simply reflecting that they are the verified accounts belonging to them. Legitimate was designed to show the person behind an article, not judge the content within it. We empower the journalist to manage and own their verification via their body of work. The public need access to as much accurate and unbiased information as possible and then they can make informed decisions about the content they consume by themselves. 

We can offer platforms like Twitter and Facebook so much more and I hope this post finds the right person within these organisations who can begin dialogue to make this happen. 

The next US election is already beginning to ramp up. Providing trust to the people across every platform needs to be front and center of that.