Twitter temporarily suspending verification service after verifying white nationalist

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."

Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey has said he takes seriously the issue of harassment on the site, and on Oct. 13 tweeted the company "decided to take a more aggressive stance in our rules and how we enforce them." Kessler, who was verified on Tuesday, has previously flouted those rules, tweeting that Heather Heyer, the woman killed at the Charlottesville rally, was "a fat, disgusting Communist. Communists have killed 94 million. Looks like it was payback time." He deleted the tweet, first saying he was hacked, then claiming he tweeted after combining alcohol with prescription drugs, the Los Angeles Times reports.

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