This week there was much attention on the lawsuit filed by St. Louis Cardinals manager Tony LaRussa against Twitter owing to an impersonator Tweeting him.
Twitter has indicated it isn't going to settle the dispute and intends to defend itself. After all, a settlement could be open season, with everyone from the Dalai Lama to a batch of celebrities laying claim to cash that Twitter likely doesn't have but could likely muster. Twitter said on its blog that it acted upon the complaint of impersonation, as it does in all such cases, by suspending the account
But Twitter is saying now that it intends to launch verified accounts later this summer, presumably by identifying your Twitter account's link to your Web site, in order to essentially tell users you are who you say you are.
The move is a good one, not only indicating that Twitter realizes it has entered the more serious stage of consumption but that it realizes some of the verification processes that work for legacy media need adoption by new media to enhance credibility.
Twitter indicates it will be selective in verifying, though, starting with well-known people and businesses, and it notes that accounts without verification should not be inferred as fake.
A photo of the verification logo is below.
