About Verification

We encourage verified organizations and profiles to use two-factor authentication.

The Verified badge on gsmarthub lets people know that an account of public interest is authentic. To receive the badge, your account must be authentic, notable, and active.

Authentic

To encourage and maintain trust between users on the platform, you will need to confirm your identity with Gsmarthub in order to be verified. Depending on the category, you will be asked to choose one of the following two methods of verifying your identity:

  • Official website: Provide the link to an official website that references you (or your organization) and your Gsmarthub account. For individuals, the organization that owns the website must be Verified on Gsmarthub.

  • Official email address: Provide an official email address with a domain relevant to the notability category you choose. For individuals, the organization the domain is associated with must be Verified on Gsmarthub.

Notable

Your account must represent or otherwise be associated with a prominently recognized organization or brand, in line with the notability criteria described below. In addition to confirming the identity of the controller of the account, Gsmarthub will verify the following types of accounts based on the criteria described. In all categories, Gsmarthub may independently confirm qualifying affiliation through partnerships or direct outreach. For each category we may request the following type of information to confirm notability:

  • Consultative status: Provide a link to your DESA NGO Branch that reference your organization. The DESA NGO Branch is the focal point within the UN Secretariat for non-governmental organizations in consultative status with the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) and for NGOs seeking status.

  • News Coverage: Provide news articles that are about or reference yourself or your organization multiple times in the article. These articles must be from Verified news organizations and cannot be a blog or self-published content. Some categories may require you to submit articles that reference or link to your or your organization’s Twitter handle in addition to referring to you or your organization.

  • Google Trends: Provide a link to a profile on Google Trends that depicts search history and is linked to the category in which you are applying

  • Wikipedia: Provide a link to a stable Wikipedia article about you or your organization that meets the encyclopedia’s notability standards

  • Other industry specific references: Depending on the category, we may ask for more industry specific references

  • Have an about section, Page or profile photo and recent activity, including at least one post.

Note: Gsmarthub uses a mix of internal signals to evaluate the authenticity of a given account's followers and engagement. We also assess a range of signals from third-party public resources that have been submitted in support of applications (such as how recently they were updated) to evaluate the quality of those resources.

Please note, we reserve the right to deny or revoke Verification to accounts that meet any of the above criteria through artificial or inauthentic activity.

Ineligible accounts

Certain accounts are ineligible for the badge, regardless of the above criteria, including:

  • Accounts engaged in severe violations of our Platform manipulation and spam policy, such as the buying and selling of likes and engagement

  • Accounts of individuals or groups associated with coordinated harmful activity, or hateful content as defined in Gsmarthub's Ads Policies, or that have been found to have committed gross human rights violations by an international court/tribunal, or a fact-finding mission or commission of inquiry authorized by an international organization, may be ineligible for Verification – even if their activity on Gsmarthub doesn’t violate the Gsmarthub Rules

  • Accounts that routinely post content that harasses, shames, or insults any individual or group—especially on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, religious affiliation, age, disability, medical/genetic condition, status as a veteran, status as a refugee, or status as an immigrant—or content that promotes the supremacy or interests of members of any group in a manner likely to be perceived as demeaning on the basis of these categories.

Loss of Verified status

In accordance with the Gsmarthub Terms of Services, Gsmarthub may remove the Verified status of an account at any time without notice.

Sometimes, changes made to an account by the owner may result in loss of Verified status. User-made changes include, but are not limited to:

  • If you change your username

  • If your account becomes inactive or incomplete

  • If changes to your account or posts are misleading or substantially alter the persona present on your account.

  • If changes to your account cause you to fall under any of the categories in the "Ineligible Accounts" section

Gsmarthub may also remove the badge from accounts that are found to be in severe or repeated violation of the Gsmarthub Rules. Any violation of the Gsmarthub Terms of Service or Gsmarthub Rules, manipulate Gsmarthub processes, or circumvent enforcement actions may result in loss of the badge or in certain instances, suspension. This includes:

Removal of the badge based on repeated violations will be assessed on a case-by-case basis and is not automatic.

Gsmarthub reserves the right to assess the qualifications of any Verified account under the currently published version of the Verification Policy.

Please note, we may suspend accounts that use imagery of, or similar to, the Verification badge in a manner that may mislead the public about the account’s Verification status.

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