Elon Musk’s X reportedly working on demanding govt ID verification from users

X is reportedly set to get another controversial feature that will not please users. This will be in the form of a government ID that will be required for verification purposes.

X will introduce govt ID verification to receive a check mark, as per the reports. (REUTERS)

X (formerly known as Twitter) has been going through a multitude of changes lately, with billionaire owner Elon Musk imposing some draconian measures on the platform. The Tesla and SpaceX CEO on Friday revealed that the blocking feature will be deleted on the platform, reiterating his previous belief that “Blocking public posts makes no sense. It needs to be deprecated in favor of a stronger form of mute”. Now, the microblogging platform is reportedly set to get another controversial feature in the form of a government ID that will be required for verification. It will please the users even less.

Govt ID verification on X

According to reports, the Musk-owned platform is reportedly testing a feature that will require users to upload a government-issued ID and a live selfie in order to get verified. The first mention of this feature came in March as Twitter was reported to be working on bringing government ID verification. The reported feature is currently only in the testing phase and was outed by independent app researcher and blogger Nima Owji.

In an X post, Owji revealed, “#X keeps working on the ID verification. You should upload a photo of your ID and take a live selfie”, while also posting a screenshot of what looks like in-app guidelines for the verification process. As per the details, the feature will be rolled out in collaboration with identity verification company Au10tix. Users will have to consent to X storing their ID images and biometric data for a period of up to 30 days. It will reportedly require a working and uncovered camera and users will be required to take a photo of their government-issued ID as well as a live selfie.

According to a Mashable report, this feature is being brought out to verify a person's authenticity and tackle the issues of AI bots and impersonation on the platform. At present, the verification process involves the purchase of an X Premium subscription (previously Twitter Blue), but it does not require authentication of any kind. If this feature goes live, users will have to go through the govt ID verification process in order to get verified and receive their check mark.