Twitter has stopped verifying accounts — after it approved a white nationalist
It didn’t take long for Twitter to seemingly notice the backlash over its decision to verify the Twitter account of Jason Kessler, who organized the white nationalist “Unite The Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.
You can submit a request for verification to Twitter, which says the blue checkmark “lets people know that an account of public interest is authentic.” That’s so famous people, like politicians and high-profile actors, don’t have to worry about others impersonating them online.
But, as Twitter, notes, “a verified badge does not imply an endorsement by Twitter.”
Still, there was strong uproar over Kessler’s verification, with many wondering why Twitter decided to give the white nationalist the blue badge — especially after Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey tweeted last month that the social media site would “take a more aggressive stance” in enforcing rules against “unwanted sexual advances, non-consensual nudity, hate symbols, violent groups, and tweets that glorifies violence.”
In what appeared to be a response to that overflowing of anger, Twitter said it “paused all general verifications.”
Verification was meant to authenticate identity & voice but it is interpreted as an endorsement or an indicator of importance. We recognize that we have created this confusion and need to resolve it. We have paused all general verifications while we work and will report back soon
— Twitter Support (@TwitterSupport) November 9, 2017
Dorsey retweeted the message from @TwitterSupport, providing a bit more information about the decision.
We should’ve communicated faster on this (yesterday): our agents have been following our verification policy correctly, but we realized some time ago the system is broken and needs to be reconsidered. And we failed by not doing anything about it. Working now to fix faster. https://t.co/wVbfYJntHj
— jack (@jack) November 9, 2017
But many — including Yuh-Line Niou, a New York State Assembly member — are wondering why they still aren’t verified while white nationalists like Kessler and Richard Spencer are.
@tonykchoi : I haven’t even been verified. Lol
— Yuh-Line Niou (@yuhline) November 8, 2017
: I just think it is funny that the KKK can be verified but not a New York State Legislator. #standards
— Yuh-Line Niou (@yuhline) November 8, 2017
You need to be a NAZI to be verified these days.
— G. (@GuilleCummings) November 9, 2017
I’ve been trying for over a year as a journalist and get rejected monthly. I️ just make shirts now. pic.twitter.com/Wjg4J3pnJz
— David Bradford (@dsbradford) November 9, 2017
Others suggested that @TwitterSupport was being misleading when it said that verification is wrongly “interpreted as an endorsement or an indicator of importance,” as the social media site lays out in multiple places that the blue checkmark signifies someone is “of public interest.”
Just straight lying. Twitter has long said, explicitly, that verification is for accounts “of public interest.” pic.twitter.com/O2jK7U0GMI
— Jamison Foser (@jamisonfoser) November 9, 2017
Milo Yiannopoulos, former contributor for the right-wing site Breitbart, was also verified and then “un-verified” by Twitter, according to Vanity Fair, before he was permanently banned from the site. James Allsup, a conservative YouTube commentator who attended the white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, is also verified on Twitter.
This story was originally published November 9, 2017 at 10:12 AM with the headline "Twitter has stopped verifying accounts — after it approved a white nationalist."