X paying users can now verify their account with a government ID

X, the social network formerly known as Twitter, has a new way for paying subscribers to verify their account in an effort to prevent account impersonation and spoofing.

By sending photos of themselves and their government-issued IDs to the microblogging site, paid users will also get preferential support – although the exact nature of this support has not yet been detailed.

Israeli identity verification company AU10TIX will be working with X to handle the execution of this new feature. In the process, the company may store the photos of users and their ID, as well as other identity-related information like biometrics, for a maximum of 30 days.

ID verification

The new feature is currently available in numerous territories, although notably it is absent from Europe and the UK, possibly due to its non-compliance with data protection regulations such as GDPR.

The company has said that, aside from its intention to “prevent impersonation”, there may be more uses ID-based account verification, “such as ensuring users have access to age-appropriate content and protecting against spam and malicious accounts.”

It also said that users will get, “prioritized support from X Services,” although it has not said what this will involve. In future, X added that it wants to make it quicker for users to attain the checkmark if they provide their ID, as well as giving them the option to make numerous changes to their profile, such as changing their name and photo regularly, without losing the mark.

To see if a user has been verified with government ID, you will need to click on the blue checkmark by their name on their profile.

Checkmarks have been a contentious issue since Elon Musk took over the company and promptly put them behind a paywall, as well as removing legacy ones. These were then reinstated following complaints, even if users didn’t pay to have them back.

X will also soon start collecting biometric data from users too, giving rise to more privacy concerns. The FTC has already said that Musk “may have jeopardized data privacy and security” at the firm, and is apparently investigating.