Twitter on Tuesday gave its blue check “Verified” mark to Jason Kessler, the white supremacist who organized the Charlottesville rally. Kessler also called Heather Heyer, the woman killed protesting the rally, a “fat, disgusting Communist”, deeming her death “payback time.”
Kessler was very proud of his Twitter verification, tweeting: “Looks like I FINALLY got verified by Twitter. I must be the only working class white advocate with that distinction.”
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
Following outrage from users, Twitter has suspended its verification process:
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
Added founder Jack Dorsey:
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
