Twitter halts verifications after blue tick for racist
SANFRANCISCO: On Tuesday, Twitter added a small blue check mark to the account of Jason Kessler, a move known as verification that indicates a prominent person’s real account.
The action was quickly met with outrage. That is because Kessler is a well-known white supremacist who has used Twitter to spread his message and organise rallies like Unite the Right’s march in Charlottesville, Virginia, where torch-wielding protesters marched through the streets chanting racist rallying cries.
Across the Twitterverse, peo- ple including comedian Michael Ian Black came down on the company. “This is disgusting. Verifying white supremacists reinforces the increasing belief that your site is a platform for hate speech. I don’t want to give up Twitter, but I may have to. Who do you value more, users like me or him?” Black wrote, referencing Jack Dorsey, Twitter’s chief executive.
Simran Jeet Singh, an assistant professor at Trinity University and a Sikh activist, said: “Hope you realize there’s no such thing as being neutral when it comes to Nazis. Verifying Jason Kessler is a political act -- and one that puts you on the wrong side of history.”
By Thursday morning, Twitter announced it would be halting its entire general verification programme. It was yet another situation that the company has had to make amends on, just a week after the accidental deletion of President Donald Trump’s Twitter account.