Jersey City’s mayor has had enough of being verified on Twitter
The mayor of Jersey City, Steven Fulop, has made the unusual request to have his Twitter verification removed. In a tweet posted this morning, Fulop said he wanted his account to return to its unverified status. “I kind of took pride in that,” he said, “it reinforced I shouldn’t take myself too seriously and just work hard in my job.”
On the face of it, Fulop’s request makes little sense. Twitter verification ostensibly just proves that he is who he says he is, and prevents other accounts from trying to imitate him. But that little blue tick (which, yes, is technically white if you want to get pedantic about it) signifies so much more than that. Whatever Twitter’s intentions, it implies you’re important, that you’re famous, or — most...