Hey, remember how late last year Twitter paused applications for profile verification due to questions about the process - and what verification even meant?
Well, don’t expect to be able to get your blue checkmark anytime soon – this week, Twitter’s product lead Kayvon Beykpour has said that fixing verification ‘is not a top priority’, and will take some time to be updated.
We've heard some questions recently about the status of Verification on Twitter, so wanted to address directly. Updating our verification program isn’t a top priority for us right now (election integrity is). Here’s some history & context, and how we plan to put it on our roadmap
— Kayvon Beykpour (@kayvz) July 17, 2018
Essentially, Beykpour notes that updating their verification process is a lesser priority than focusing on platform integrity and ensuring it’s not misused by politically motivated groups – which, as I’m sure no one would argue, is the right approach.
Twitter paused its verification process due to questions about who the platform was ‘endorsing’ after various white supremacist leaders were verified, despite Twitter vowing to take more action against hate speech. Twitter’s response to this was that verification was not a form of endorsement, but even some within the company were under the impression it was, which lead to confusion not only externally, but internally too.
Since then, Twitter’s been working to clarify its actual approach to verification, and what it entails, but as noted, there’s no outcome in sight as yet.
Beykpour does note that a lot of work has been done on fixing their verification process, and that they’ll re-visit the project in a month, with a view to a resolution. And worth noting, Twitter has also continued to verify some accounts ad-hoc – which has also caused some ire among user groups.
Basically, if you dream of having your own blue checkmark, you’re in for a bit more of a wait.
We’ll update you with more info as it becomes available.