Show caption Richard Spencer is among those who lost their blue checkmarks on Twitter. Photograph: David J Phillip/AP Twitter Richard Spencer and others lose Twitter verified status under new guidelines Company announces new rules for blue-checkmarked verified accounts following criticism over status of Charlottesville rally organizer Jason Kessler Julia Carrie Wong @juliacarriew Thu 16 Nov 2017 00.33 GMT Share on Facebook

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Twitter announced new guidelines for verified accounts on Wednesday, one week after the company was harshly criticized for granting the coveted blue checkmark to Jason Kessler, the organizer of the deadly white nationalist rally in Charlottesville in August.

“We are conducting an initial review of verified accounts and will remove verification from accounts whose behavior does not fall within these new guidelines,” the company wrote on Twitter.

Among the behaviors that will result in the revocation of verification are “promoting hate and/or violence”, supporting hate groups, “inciting or engaging in harassment of others”.

Shortly after the policy change was announced, the company de-verified the accounts of the white nationalist Richard Spencer, the far-right activist Laura Loomer, the English Defence League founder Tommy Robinson, and others.

Twitter just emailed me to tell me they are removing my "verified badge" because they claim my account "doesn't comply with Twitter's guidelines for verified accounts."



Translation: I'm a conservative. pic.twitter.com/F1AsxWI6Fm — Laura Loomer (@LauraLoomer) November 15, 2017

The company had “paused” granting new verifications on 9 November in response to the outcry over Kessler, and said on Wednesday that the program would remain on hold while it worked on a “new authentication and verification program”.

Twitter’s announcement of the new policy comes amid a host of changes at the social media company, which has for years focused on appealing to new users while largely ignoring complaints about rampant harassment from its relatively small but loyal user base.

On 19 October, the company rolled out a timeline for policy updates intended to “make Twitter a safer place”. It updated its rules to ban more objectionable content, such as hate symbols, unwanted sexual advances, and non-consensual nudity, and has pledged to improve its systems for issues such as reporting abuse or appealing suspensions.

Twitter’s verification has for years been a source of confusion. The blue checkmark was initially granted only to high-profile public figures, organizations, and journalists, and was useful in ensuring that people knew that @realdonaldtrump was, in fact, the real Donald Trump, while @DonaldTrump was not.

“Verification has long been perceived as an endorsement,” the company wrote on Twitter. “We gave verified accounts visual prominence on the service which deepened this perception. We should have addressed this earlier but did not prioritize the work as we should have.”

In July 2016, the company began allowing members of the public to apply for verification. While the change was welcomed by many, it also created the impression that users like Spencer had earned the company’s stamp of approval.

“This perception became worse when we opened up verification for public submissions and verified people who we in no way endorse,” the company said.

Adding to the confusion was the fact that Twitter did de-verify the rightwing troll Milo Yiannopoulos in January 2016 (they subsequently banned him permanently in July 2016), without providing a clear explanation of what the new policy was.

Kessler took credit for the policy change via his newly unverified Twitter account, writing: “Twitter has changed their verification just to be able to censor me.”

Twitter’s new approach to verification will probably open up an entirely new can of worms for a company already facing pressure from the US Congress over its role in a Russian influence campaign to affect the 2016 presidential election.

Twitter’s policy states clearly that verification “does not imply an endorsement by Twitter”, but the fact that Twitter can remove the checkmark based on an account’s behavior or content will probably reinforce the perception that it does imply an endorsement.