The Twitter Mayhem

Twitter is removing verified status from the users who post racist and hateful material. The decision to remove the verification came just when people were gonna label Twitter and Trump the same thing. The verification puts a blue-tick badge in front of the user’s name. Signifying that the user as a major public impact. The blue tick lets other users find those account more easily.

Since the Charlottesville and the follow alt-right movements. Many criticised Twitter for letting those users spread their racist and violent propaganda to the environment. On top of that, a few days ago Twitter verified the account of white supremacist Jason Kessler. Which signified that the tweeting site endorsed such kind of behavior in the name of “free speech”.

The big issue

This was such a big issue, cause Jason Kessler is not like your grandpa. Who only make racist drunk jokes at Thanksgiving (that was way too specific). He organized the August Unite in a Right rally at Charlottesville.

To undo their past mistakes, the website will be reviewing a number of verified accounts. And will remove verified status from the accounts that violate company’s new guidelines. That includes sending tweets that support hate or violence based on others race, sexual orientation, gender or religion among other criteria. They also stopped taking any public applications for the verified status till then. 

The white backlash

Surprisingly yet unsurprised, those people tweeted out their displeasure. Other can come down with Jason Kessler were white nationalist Richard Spence. Far-right activists Laura Loomer and James Allsup, and Tommy Robinson, host of a show on conservative site Rebel TV. And alt-right figurehead, Tim Gionet a.k.a. Baked Alaska (that’s a weird name to start with) lost his account altogether on Twitter.

Twitter has changed their verification policy just to be able to censor me. Several other accounts were unverified including Richard Spencer and James Allsup while Baked Alaska was permanently suspended altogether. pic.twitter.com/PO1QnJC2C6

— Jason Kessler (@TheMadDimension) November 15, 2017

Verified no more! Is it not okay to be proudly White? ‍♂

— Richard Spencer (@RichardBSpencer) November 15, 2017

Many complained Twitter is being selective and compromising free speech. Just the thing is Twitter is a private company, so it has no free speech obligations. The White Supremacists just have to get along with the fact that in some scenarios they can be “underprivileged” too. While this was a step in the right direction, Twitter still failed to suspend those accounts that violate its policies. 

Also, still on the wonder when @realDonaldTrump will lose its verified status. Seriously, how the world will be like without Trump’s tweets. What do you think? Comment down below.