Over the last month, Twitter seemed to finally wake up to the need to fight the rampant hate speech and abuse that happens on its platform. That made yesterday's decision to verify Jason Kessler, the leader of the white supremacist rally that took place in Charlottesville, VA this summer, incredibly odd (or incredibly foolish). Regardless, the blue checkmark is firmly in place on Kessler's account, and users pretty quickly told Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey they weren't happy about this move.

This morning, Twitter responded -- not by revoking Kessler's verified status, but by saying it was pausing all general verifications to resolve confusion around what being verified really means. "Verification was meant to authenticate identity & voice," reads a tweet on the company's support account, "but it is interpreted as an endorsement or an indicator of importance."