Skip to content
By using Twitter’s services you agree to our Cookies Use. We and our partners operate globally and use cookies, including for analytics, personalisation, and ads.
  • Home Home Home, current page.
  • About

Saved searches

  • Remove
  • In this conversation
    Verified accountProtected Tweets @
Suggested users
  • Verified accountProtected Tweets @
  • Verified accountProtected Tweets @
  • Language: English
    • Bahasa Indonesia
    • Bahasa Melayu
    • Català
    • Čeština
    • Dansk
    • Deutsch
    • English UK
    • Español
    • Filipino
    • Français
    • Hrvatski
    • Italiano
    • Magyar
    • Nederlands
    • Norsk
    • Polski
    • Português
    • Română
    • Slovenčina
    • Suomi
    • Svenska
    • Tiếng Việt
    • Türkçe
    • Ελληνικά
    • Български език
    • Русский
    • Српски
    • Українська мова
    • עִבְרִית
    • العربية
    • فارسی
    • मराठी
    • हिन्दी
    • বাংলা
    • ગુજરાતી
    • தமிழ்
    • ಕನ್ನಡ
    • ภาษาไทย
    • 한국어
    • 日本語
    • 简体中文
    • 繁體中文
  • Have an account? Log in
    Have an account?
    · Forgot password?

    New to Twitter?
    Sign up
thijsniks's profile
Thijs Niks
Thijs Niks
Thijs Niks
@thijsniks

Tweets

Thijs Niks

@thijsniks

Product Manager for ☎️ at @WhatsApp / ❤️ retweets

San Francisco, CA
thijs.niks.nu
Joined February 2009

Tweets

  • © 2021 Twitter
  • About
  • Help Center
  • Terms
  • Privacy policy
  • Cookies
  • Ads info
Dismiss
Previous
Next

Go to a person's profile

Saved searches

  • Remove
  • In this conversation
    Verified accountProtected Tweets @
Suggested users
  • Verified accountProtected Tweets @
  • Verified accountProtected Tweets @

Promote this Tweet

Block

  • Tweet with a location

    You can add location information to your Tweets, such as your city or precise location, from the web and via third-party applications. You always have the option to delete your Tweet location history. Learn more

    Your lists

    Create a new list


    Under 100 characters, optional

    Privacy

    Copy link to Tweet

    Embed this Tweet

    Embed this Video

    Add this Tweet to your website by copying the code below. Learn more

    Add this video to your website by copying the code below. Learn more

    Hmm, there was a problem reaching the server.

    By embedding Twitter content in your website or app, you are agreeing to the Twitter Developer Agreement and Developer Policy.

    Preview

    Why you're seeing this ad

    Log in to Twitter

    · Forgot password?
    Don't have an account? Sign up »

    Sign up for Twitter

    Not on Twitter? Sign up, tune into the things you care about, and get updates as they happen.

    Sign up
    Have an account? Log in »

    Two-way (sending and receiving) short codes:

    Country Code For customers of
    United States 40404 (any)
    Canada 21212 (any)
    United Kingdom 86444 Vodafone, Orange, 3, O2
    Brazil 40404 Nextel, TIM
    Haiti 40404 Digicel, Voila
    Ireland 51210 Vodafone, O2
    India 53000 Bharti Airtel, Videocon, Reliance
    Indonesia 89887 AXIS, 3, Telkomsel, Indosat, XL Axiata
    Italy 4880804 Wind
    3424486444 Vodafone
    » See SMS short codes for other countries

    Confirmation

     

    Welcome home!

    This timeline is where you’ll spend most of your time, getting instant updates about what matters to you.

    Tweets not working for you?

    Hover over the profile pic and click the Following button to unfollow any account.

    Say a lot with a little

    When you see a Tweet you love, tap the heart — it lets the person who wrote it know you shared the love.

    Spread the word

    The fastest way to share someone else’s Tweet with your followers is with a Retweet. Tap the icon to send it instantly.

    Join the conversation

    Add your thoughts about any Tweet with a Reply. Find a topic you’re passionate about, and jump right in.

    Learn the latest

    Get instant insight into what people are talking about now.

    Get more of what you love

    Follow more accounts to get instant updates about topics you care about.

    Find what's happening

    See the latest conversations about any topic instantly.

    Never miss a Moment

    Catch up instantly on the best stories happening as they unfold.

    1. Thijs Niks‏ @thijsniks 27 Mar 2020

      A week ago, I joined a group of volunteers to help source and ship medical supplies from China to Europe so our frontline staff has everything they need to fight the coronavirus. My work has mainly focused on verifying product certifications and I HAVE THOUGHTS ABOUT THIS 👇🧵

      4 replies 18 retweets 53 likes
      Show this thread
    2. Thijs Niks‏ @thijsniks 27 Mar 2020

      Most governments ensure that imported goods meet their required safety rules through developing standards, requiring manufactures to hire certification organizations to verify their work, and providing a mechanism for validating these certificates.

      1 reply 0 retweets 6 likes
      Show this thread
    3. Thijs Niks‏ @thijsniks 27 Mar 2020

      A strong certification system removes many blockers for (international) trade, as it brings trust into a free market which can’t always rely on reputation. It reduces the risk that you are buying a faulty product. This is especially needed during a crisis.

      1 reply 0 retweets 5 likes
      Show this thread
    4. Thijs Niks‏ @thijsniks 27 Mar 2020

      For most medical equipment, these types of certifications are required. In the European Union, this is done through the CE certification process.

      2 replies 0 retweets 5 likes
      Show this thread
    5. Thijs Niks‏ @thijsniks 27 Mar 2020

      Here is how certificate validation works: 🔍 Find a supplier 📋 Get their certificate 🕵️‍♀️ Figure out who issued it 🖥 Use the certifier’s website to validate it 🇪🇺 Verify the certifier in the Nando database This process works, but it could be much better

      1 reply 1 retweet 6 likes
      Show this thread
    6. Thijs Niks‏ @thijsniks 27 Mar 2020

      While it’s amazing that the European Union has defined all these standards and requires a certification process, it failed to standardize the certificates themselves nor the verification process.

      1 reply 4 retweets 8 likes
      Show this thread
    7. Thijs Niks‏ @thijsniks 27 Mar 2020

      Each certificate looks different: 🔒 Few have security features 👩‍⚖️ Some don’t list the certifier’s legal entity 🖥️ Some don’t list the certifier’s website 😖 Each certifier’s website works differently 🇪🇺 Few certificates list their Nando number It makes the process slow

      1 reply 1 retweet 4 likes
      Show this thread
    8. Thijs Niks‏ @thijsniks 27 Mar 2020

      The easy fix is for the EU to standardize the minimum set of information and a layout it should be presented in. All certificates should have: 📜 Link (and QR code) to the certifier’s copy of the certificate 🇪🇺 Link (and QR code) to the Nando listing

      1 reply 2 retweets 13 likes
      Show this thread
    9. Thijs Niks‏ @thijsniks 27 Mar 2020

      The long term fix would be to centralize not only the certification organization listings, but also the certificates themselves. Why do buyers need to hunt down individual certificates across different databases if Nando could just serve all of them?

      1 reply 0 retweets 10 likes
      Show this thread
    10. Thijs Niks‏ @thijsniks 27 Mar 2020

      In the grand scheme of things, this is an incredibly minor inconvenience and I’m happy that doing this work is contributing in a small way to reducing the pain of this pandemic 🦠

      1 reply 0 retweets 8 likes
      Show this thread
      Thijs Niks‏ @thijsniks 27 Mar 2020

      I hope that we as a society learn from this crisis in many ways and perhaps streamlining the certification validation process could be one of the small things we improve ✨

      10:56 PM - 27 Mar 2020
      • 8 Likes
      • Rick Pastoor Natanael, tech custodial engineer Dan Grover Al Bree Michiel Verkoulen Emine Uğur uadm W. Sonneveld
      2 replies 0 retweets 8 likes
        1. New conversation
        2. Thijs Niks‏ @thijsniks 27 Mar 2020

          To give you an idea: Validating a certificate can take ~30 minutes if you are having a hard time locating the certifier’s website and navigating it in a foreign language, whereas this really should be 5 minutes of work. 📉 8 hours / 30 minutes = 16 📈 8 hours / 5 minutes = 96

          1 reply 1 retweet 2 likes
          Show this thread
        3. Thijs Niks‏ @thijsniks 28 Mar 2020

          Here’s an example: We found a new supplier with a seemingly legitimate certificate from a supposedly UK-based certifier. 🇪🇺 Certifier doesn’t show in Nando → Hard no ✉️ Email certifier to double check → Bounced 🇨🇳 Domain registered from China 📡 Server configured in Chinese

          2 replies 1 retweet 6 likes
          Show this thread
        4. Thijs Niks‏ @thijsniks 31 Mar 2020

          Round 2 of this certification thread: Get ready to discuss how legitimate European certifiers also issue fake certificates 🤯 And yes, I’ll be NAMING and SHAMING some of these companies because they are putting the health of people at risk in times of crisis 🙅‍♂️

          1 reply 1 retweet 11 likes
          Show this thread
        5. Thijs Niks‏ @thijsniks 31 Mar 2020

          After verifying dozens of potential Chinese manufacturing leads for medical supplies, I noticed that 3 certification companies tended to show up much more frequently than others. These are Ente Certificazione Macchine (Italy), ICR Polska (Poland), and Celab (Italy).

          1 reply 2 retweets 10 likes
          Show this thread
        6. Thijs Niks‏ @thijsniks 31 Mar 2020

          I first noticed this when we started receiving Celab’s fake certificates for medical supplies, which made no sense to me because they are only accredited to complete “electromagnetic compatibility” certification https://ec.europa.eu/growth/tools-databases/nando/index.cfm?fuseaction=search.nb&refe_cd=NANDO%5FINPUT%5F124828 …

          1 reply 1 retweet 4 likes
          Show this thread
        7. Thijs Niks‏ @thijsniks 31 Mar 2020

          We then received ICR Polska certificates from potential suppliers, which was confusing because they are accredited for certifying “protective systems intended for use in potentially explosive atmospheres” which sounds like masks but isn’t https://ec.europa.eu/growth/tools-databases/nando/index.cfm?fuseaction=search.nb&refe_cd=NANDO%5FINPUT%5F233263 …

          1 reply 0 retweets 4 likes
          Show this thread
        8. Thijs Niks‏ @thijsniks 31 Mar 2020

          And eventually we got loads of fake certificates by Ente Certificazione Macchine, which was very disconcerting because they are even accredited to certify “medical devices” but that still does not cover “personal protective equipment” https://ec.europa.eu/growth/tools-databases/nando/index.cfm?fuseaction=search.nb&refe_cd=EPOS%5F50158 …

          1 reply 0 retweets 4 likes
          Show this thread
        9. Thijs Niks‏ @thijsniks 31 Mar 2020

          Personal protective equipment, like masks, is required to be CE certified before it can be sold on the European market — as it should be! Faulty products can kill you. All of these products have to adhere to “Regulation (EU) 2016/425”https://ec.europa.eu/growth/sectors/mechanical-engineering/personal-protective-equipment_en …

          1 reply 1 retweet 5 likes
          Show this thread
        10. Thijs Niks‏ @thijsniks 31 Mar 2020

          The Nando database helpful lists which EU-based certification organizations are accredited for certifying products under “Regulation (EU) 2016/425” and you will see that ECM, ICR and Celab are not on it. https://ec.europa.eu/growth/tools-databases/nando/index.cfm?fuseaction=directive.notifiedbody&dir_id=155501 …

          1 reply 0 retweets 6 likes
          Show this thread
        11. Thijs Niks‏ @thijsniks 31 Mar 2020

          And then a couple of days ago, ICR Polska all of the sudden put a warning message on top of all their webpages saying that “assessments carried out so far are of a voluntary nature” and “these certificates do not confirm conformity.” It seems like something spooked them.pic.twitter.com/0ulQt5YDVG

          1 reply 0 retweets 4 likes
          Show this thread
        12. Thijs Niks‏ @thijsniks 31 Mar 2020

          So I started digging into what ICR meant by “voluntary nature” and I can tell you now: It’s not pretty.

          1 reply 0 retweets 3 likes
          Show this thread
        13. Thijs Niks‏ @thijsniks 31 Mar 2020

          Turns out these companies have two business lines: 👨‍⚖️ Actual regulatory certification 🤬 Fake certificates as marketing documents Both of those look official, come with the same branding, and pass the document validation check. However, these marketing documents are BULLSHIT.

          1 reply 4 retweets 10 likes
          Show this thread
        14. Thijs Niks‏ @thijsniks 31 Mar 2020

          These certification organizations will sell fake certificates as “voluntary certification” which only has to live up to the certifier’s standards, not the regulatory ones. Manufactures can essential buy the branding of a legitimate certification organization for marketing.

          1 reply 1 retweet 4 likes
          Show this thread
        15. Thijs Niks‏ @thijsniks 31 Mar 2020

          ECM calls this their “Voluntary Mark for Product Certification” and helpfully describes it as: “The Mark may only be used for advertising and promotional purposes and can not in any way refer to the product's compliance with regulations.” http://www.entecerma-it.cn/img/pdf/ECM-Mark-Regulation.pdf …pic.twitter.com/2xISQmdAox

          2 replies 0 retweets 6 likes
          Show this thread
        16. Thijs Niks‏ @thijsniks 31 Mar 2020

          Celab is even more straightforward and says “the voluntary certificate is not for customs purposes or to demonstrate to the supervisory compliance with the requirements of the CE marking of a product.” https://celab.com/en/ce-marking/voluntary-certificate/ …pic.twitter.com/CFqeUfxU4X

          1 reply 0 retweets 4 likes
          Show this thread
        17. Thijs Niks‏ @thijsniks 31 Mar 2020

          However, the real and the fake certificates both look official, come with the same logos, and show up in the same verification system. The only difference is that you have to carefully determine whether it’s a “voluntary one.”pic.twitter.com/JaC05xORrD

          2 replies 4 retweets 5 likes
          Show this thread
        18. Thijs Niks‏ @thijsniks 31 Mar 2020

          I don’t know what the history is behind this, but it feels like a loophole. Some Chinese manufacturers are clearly abusing it in their effort to dump poor quality medical products onto the European market for a quick buck.

          1 reply 1 retweet 5 likes
          Show this thread
        19. Thijs Niks‏ @thijsniks 31 Mar 2020

          I’m surprised that the European Union allows their accredited certification organisations to run a side-business handing out fake certificates based on the brand value they built within the official system. It’s unconscionable. Let’s fix it 💪

          3 replies 3 retweets 9 likes
          Show this thread
        20. Thijs Niks‏ @thijsniks 6 Apr 2020

          In case you’re wondering “do these fake certificates work,” I present to you: Well-meaning citizens donated 40,000 masks to the city of Vienna, with what seems to be a fake certificate https://www.ots.at/presseaussendung/OTS_20200331_OTS0106/corona-chinesische-community-uebergab-mehr-als-39000-mundschutzmasken-fuer-wiener-einsatz-organisationen … CE 2703 = ICR Polska = Fake https://ec.europa.eu/growth/tools-databases/nando/index.cfm?fuseaction=search.nb&refe_cd=NANDO%5FINPUT%5F233263 …pic.twitter.com/vNKAej34rh

          1 reply 1 retweet 2 likes
          Show this thread
        21. Thijs Niks‏ @thijsniks 6 Apr 2020

          And the European Safety Federation has also taken note of these fake certificates: “We have the impression that manufacturers outside the EU (and probably even ‘newcomers’ and importers in the EU) are not entirely familiar with the EU Legislation” https://www.eu-esf.org/covid-19/4513-covid-19-suspicious-certificates-for-ppe …pic.twitter.com/pUgAn2MT70

          1 reply 2 retweets 3 likes
          Show this thread
        22. Thijs Niks‏ @thijsniks 6 Apr 2020

          The official response of ICR Polska seems to be that manufacturers are aware that these documents do not certify conformity with the regulation. However, that’s clearly not how manufacturers, resellers or buyers are currently interpreting it in practice. https://www.eu-esf.org/covid-19/4513-covid-19-suspicious-certificates-for-ppe …pic.twitter.com/EO3UfoZ4lE

          1 reply 0 retweets 2 likes
          Show this thread
        23. Thijs Niks‏ @thijsniks 6 Apr 2020

          Also note how ICR Polska has toned down their warning messagepic.twitter.com/dmgYcSj6eV

          1 reply 0 retweets 3 likes
          Show this thread
        24. Thijs Niks‏ @thijsniks 6 Apr 2020

          So which organisations can you trust for mask certification? 32 in Europe: https://ec.europa.eu/growth/tools-databases/nando/index.cfm?fuseaction=directive.notifiedbody&dir_id=155501&pro_id=155522 … 45 in China: https://www.cnas.org.cn/english/photonews/03/902316.shtml …

          2 replies 2 retweets 6 likes
          Show this thread
        25. Thijs Niks‏ @thijsniks 8 Apr 2020

          https://www.volkskrant.nl/nieuws-achtergrond/schaarste-aan-mondkapjes-leidt-tot-fraude~b0827413/ …pic.twitter.com/xxLWDiriWr

          2 replies 0 retweets 1 like
          Show this thread
        26. Thijs Niks‏ @thijsniks 16 Apr 2020

          Thijs Niks Retweeted Thijs Niks

          https://twitter.com/ThijsNiks/status/1250850807181803520 …

          Thijs Niks added,

          Thijs Niks @thijsniks
          De afgelopen weken hebben we met een groep vrijwilligers en bedrijven een nieuwe aanvoer van mondmaskers op poten gezet en je kunt als zorgverlener vanaf nu bestellen! https://twitter.com/Sywert/status/1250832220341899264 …
          Show this thread
          0 replies 0 retweets 1 like
          Show this thread
        27. End of conversation

      Loading seems to be taking a while.

      Twitter may be over capacity or experiencing a momentary hiccup. Try again or visit Twitter Status for more information.

        Promoted Tweet

        false

        • © 2021 Twitter
        • About
        • Help Center
        • Terms
        • Privacy policy
        • Cookies
        • Ads info