Twitter has announced that it is pausing its verification process for a second time this year. The company suspended verifications in 2017, and only restarted the process in January 2021, before halting the process a week later.
At the time, Twitter said the volume of applications was too huge, and the company wanted to ensure that the applications were reviewed by humans pending approval. The process later continued, but the last few months have been marred with verification controversy.
Twitter said on the platform that it was halting the process as it needed to work on the application and review process. This comes after the company admitted to verifying several fake accounts.
We’ve temporarily hit pause on rolling out access to apply for Verification so we can make improvements to the application and review process.
For those who have been waiting, we know this may be disappointing. We want to get things right, and appreciate your patience.
— Twitter Verified (@verified) August 13, 2021
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
Read: Twitter Users to Get Detailed Information for Rejected Verification Requests
In Kenya, an account purporting to belong to Embakasi East Member of Parliament, Babu Owino was verified last month. The incident sparked outrage from the MP and Netizens who questioned the validity of Twitter’s verification process. Meanwhile, other influential figures have complained that the social media app has rejected their applications, despite being suitably qualified.
Twitter said that users who had recently applied for verification had a chance of getting verified as the reviewing process was still goin on.
The freeze will affect new people from being able to apply. Users who were waiting for the one-month post-review to reapply can actually do so.
Recently, Twitter announced that it would be giving users more context as to why applications were rejected to offer more clarity.
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