Twitter’s verification program is once again put on hold

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If you were looking forward to getting a chance to apply for Twitter’s prestigious verification badge, it looks like you’ll be waiting a little longer. The platform has announced that it is halting the expansion of its verification program so that it can “make improvements to the application and verification process.”

After four years of no verification process, Twitter finally opened applications back up in May. Less than a couple of months later, the company admitted that it had verified a bunch of bot accounts. As it turns out, Twitter’s application process wasn’t as fixed as it thought.

To be clear, the company isn’t actually halting applications for the process. Instead, it is halting the rollout of access to the application process itself. In other words, if you already had the ability to apply prior to this halt, then you can still apply today.

However, users that had not yet been given the ability to apply for verification will have to wait for the company to sort its process out before they get the chance to apply.

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

This isn’t the first time that Twitter has had issues with its verification process. The company had to pause and re-work the process back in 2017 after it controversially verified a white supremacist who had connections to the Charlottesville white supremacist rally that ended with the death of counter-protester Heather Hayer.

Verification is always going to be a tricky process for Twitter. As the company said in a tweet from 2017, the process is meant to authenticate an individual or profile, but is mostly seen as an endorsement of sorts. For that reason, the platform will always have to be careful and vigilant about the verification badges it hands out.

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