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Amid controversy, Twitter hits the pause button on account verifications
Twitter Inc. today announced it’s putting a hold on the verification process as it attempts to figure out why some dubious accounts were verified.
“Verification was meant to authenticate identity & voice but it is interpreted as an endorsement or an indicator of importance,” Twitter said in a tweet. “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.”
The dubious account in question was owned by Jason Kessler, the man behind the far-right Unite the Right protest. His account received the blue checkmark, which means the account is verified by Twitter. Kessler claims to be a journalist, having been published in GotNews, Daily Caller and VDARE, far-right Internet news sites that could be said to lack in journalistic curiosity. For his part, Kessler seemed pleased with his promotion:
Looks like I FINALLY got verified by Twitter. I must be the only working class white advocate with that distinction. pic.twitter.com/IMXqtmhgvn
— Jason Kessler (@TheMadDimension) November 7, 2017
While Twitter is taking steps to clean itself up, questions are being asked as to why proponents of far-right ideology are allowed to disseminate their views and other users are banned. One such account that incurred a ban was that of the self-proclaimed “Internet supervillain” Milo Yiannopoulos. It’s debatable whether Yiannopoulos’ views were any more dangerous than Kessler’s sometimes hateful opinions.
Twitter’s verification badge should mean that the account is of “public interest,” but seeing that such a statement is vague, the badge has been controversial. For instance, influential but controversial accounts have not received the badge in the past, including the account of the embattled Wikileaks founder Julian Assange.
Good questions.
1. If Verified = true ID, needs to have clear process which isn’t tied solely to prominence. So long as it’s black box & arbitrary it feels like a stamp of approval from TWTR…— (@hunterwalk) November 9, 2017
Twitter Chief Executive Jack Dorsey also admitted that Twitter should have perhaps moved faster and is now looking into the process. Dorsey said in a tweet that his team was aware for some time that the “system is broken and needs to be reconsidered.”
Image: Ian Brown via Flickr
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