Petition to Twitter to Verify Cheri Jacobus Account

The Twitter universe has become a popular and effective medium for getting news out to the Internet quickly and easily. But like all other good things those things that can be used for good can also be used nefariously.

Because of the ease of creating accounts on Twitter it is fairly easy to impersonate other users and make it appear that the user says things he does not. This can be done with humorous effect, but it can also be harmful.


Consider this example. Here is a tweet from Donald Trump.

If the disgusting and corrupt media covered me honestly and didn't put false meaning into the words I say, I would be beating Hillary by 20%

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 14, 2016

Now here is another tweet from a Trump impersonator.

There is nothing like having an existential identity crisis few weeks before election. Believe me! @realDonaldTrump https://t.co/bJ9KK1zUo1

— DonaId J. Trump (@realDenaldTrump) August 15, 2016

A glance at both tweets appear to be from the same account, but there are some differences that show this isn't the case. Notice the spelling of the user accounts. The real account is spelled "@realDonaldTrump." The impostor account is the same except for one letter that I have highlighted here: "@realDenaldTrump." Another difference, however, is the blue graphic beside the real account's title.

Verified Account Icon

When this icon appears it indicates that Twitter has verified that the user account belongs to the person indicated, and not to an imposter. This makes it a little easier for other users to engage the real user without having to check the spelling of the user's account.

Verified accounts are given by Twitter apparently based on some arbitrary criteria, but Twitter does not specify those criteria. Many have verified accounts, usually well-known business people, politicians, actors, artists, journalists, etc., but there are others who are equally well-known that cannot seem to get Twitter to provide the service.

Cheri Jacobus

A case in point is the case of Cheri Jacobus. Ms. Jacobus is a political strategist and has worked on a number of campaigns. Because she brought a suit against the Donald Trump earlier this year for defamation, her Twitter account has been a target for abuse by certain rabid Trump supporters. These supporters create accounts that look like Ms. Jacobus and post vile and embarrasing tweets for no other reason that to promote the defamation started by the upper levels of the Trump campaign.

She has been able to have several of these accounts banned by Twitter, but as soon as one of the accounts is banned another account is created (probably by the same user) to continue the assault. Ms. Jacobus has repeatedly asked Twitter to verify her account to help mitigate this abuse, but so far Twitter has not granted her requests and refuses to say what would be required of her to get a verified account.

In order to help Ms. Jacobus, an online petition has been created to gather signatures of supporters asking Twitter to verify her account immediately. The link to the petition is in the following tweet we sent out this morning.

Petition Twitter to Verify Cheri Jacobus' Account, @CheriJacobus, Immediately. Please sign.https://t.co/fEJ0qJK1IE pic.twitter.com/EiFODLYizJ

— (((Gil Yoder))) (@gyode) August 15, 2016

If you agree with us that the abuse has gone on too long, please follow the link provided, and sign the petition. If you have a Twitter account, please tweet a link to this page, and ask your followers to sign the petition as well.