Draft:Rel=me Verification

• Comment: WP:NOTHOWTO. This is technical documentation, not an encyclopedia article. Most of the sources are about how this feature works in various individual applications, and I see no reason to treat this as a discrete topic worth writing about in an encyclopedia. I think this information would be better off included as a section within a different article; maybe Online identity or something? Athanelar (talk) 00:52, 30 March 2026 (UTC)

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rel="me" verifcation

The rel="me" value is an HTML link relationship attribute used to indicate that two web resources represent the same person or entity. It originated as part of early web microformats and has been used in decentralized identity systems to associate profiles and websites controlled by a single individual.

Overview and History

The rel="me" value is part of the HTML rel attribute, which defines relationships between linked resources. The me relation indicates identity equivalence between the current page and the linked page. The attribute was introduced through the XHTML Friends Network (XFN), a microformat designed to express relationships between people and web resources.

When two pages link to each other using rel="me", software systems can interpret this as evidence that both are controlled by the same entity.

Use in identity verification

Although this standard exists beyond the platforms known as the Fediverse, most prominent use of rel="me" is in decentralized identity verification systems, within the Fediverse and Mastodon.

Online reporters such as The Markup have noted the importance of this system as they used it on their own accounts. They write:

"One Twitter alternative’s verification system is simple, open, and free...In comparison [to Twitter's verfication system], there is an elegant simplicity to the verification approach used by Mastodon, the Twitter-like alternative social network that we’ve been trying out at The Markup. Rather than attempt to verify the person behind the keyboard, Mastodon offers a mechanism for external websites to claim an account as being affiliated using a green background and check mark icon. In other words, Mastodon makes no claims about who an account belongs to, just that a particular website has vouched for it."

Wired Magazine called "rel=me" verification one of the features that "Twitter should steal (but won't)" and they wrote:

"Mastodon, meanwhile, has a system that allows for quick verification without any overhead. Basically, if you link to your Mastodon account with the tag “rel=me” on your website, Mastodon will highlight that you control the site on your profile. This gives people a quick way to confirm your identity without creating a lot of work for moderators. Twitter could do worse than copying this strategy for 'official' accounts."

Mashable writers describe the user experience of verifying this way on Mastodon:

"So, if you put a link in your Mastodon profile, the company...checks if the linked page links back to your Mastodon profile. If so, you get a verification checkmark next to that link, since you are confirmed as the owner...The company does this by checking the rel="me" attribute — a standard way to check whether or not linked website belongs to a user on a third party site."

Unlike traditional social media verification systems, which rely on centralized approval or identity documents, this approach verifies control of web resources rather than personal identity, and has been a key part of many efforts in the larger decentralized identity efforts across different technologies.

Adoption and use

Use of rel="me" is most common in decentralized and open web ecosystems, but is supported in platform such as:

• Social networks such as Mastodon, Flipboard, Medium, Pixelfed Loops, and Threads.
• IndieWeb identity and authentication systems, including Automatic's Gravatar.
• Github supports this in their profile system.
• Wikipedia itself uses rel=me for its user pages and Wikimedia documents that support via their rel-me extension.
• Websites publising services such as Micro.blog support this, as does Wordpress.com.
• Within the IndieWeb ecosystem, rel="me" is used to link multiple profiles and domains representing the same individual, and forms part of authentication approaches such as IndieAuth.

Technical mechanism

The attribute is applied to hyperlinks:

<a href="https://example.com" rel="me">Profile</a>

Verification systems typically require:

• Reciprocal links between two resources
• Public accessibility of both pages
• Presence of the rel="me" attribute in the HTML
• That the rel="me" attribute not exist inside of an iFrame.

When these conditions are met, systems can automatically confirm identity linkage.

See also

• Link relation
• Fediverse
• IndieWeb
• Decentralized identity