Twitter temporarily suspending verification service after verifying white nationalist

Twitter.
(Image credit: Getty Images)

If you don't have a blue checkmark next to your name on Twitter, it might take awhile before you get it.

The company announced on Thursday it is taking a closer look at how it decides which users get verified and temporarily suspending the service, following outrage over the verification of Jason Kessler, the organizer of the white nationalist Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville. "Verification was meant to authenticate identity and voice but it is interpreted as an endorsement or an indicator of importance," Twitter said. "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."

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Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.