INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Twitter is pausing its work on overhauling its verification process, which provides a blue checkmark to public figures, in favor of
election integrity, Twitter product lead Kayvon Beykpour tweeted today
That because, as we enter another election season, &updating our verification program isn&t a top priority for us right now (election
integrity is),& he wrote on Twitter this afternoon.
Last November, Twitter paused its account verifications as it tried to figure out a way
to address confusion around what it means to be verified
That decision came shortly after people criticized Twitter for having verified the account of Jason Keller, the person who organized the
deadly white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Va.
Fast-forward to today and Twitter still verifies accounts &ad hoc when we think it
serves the public conversation is in line with our policy,& Beykpour wrote
&But this has led to frustration b/c our process remains opaque inconsistent with our intented [sic] pause.&
While Twitter recognizes its
job isn&t done, the company is not prioritizing the work at this time — at least for the next few weeks, he said
In an email addressed to Twitter health leadership team last week, Beykpour said his team simply doesn&t have the bandwidth to focus on
verification &without coming at the cost of other priorities and distracting the team.&
The highest priority, Beykpour said, is election
Specifically, Twitter team will be looking at the product &with a specific lens towards the upcoming elections and some of the ‘election
integrity& workstreams we&ve discussed.&
Once that done &after ~4 weeks,& he said, the product team will be in a better place to address
verification.
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 some history context, and how we plan to put it on our roadmap
— Kayvon Beykpour (@kayvz) July 17, 2018
