Twitter cites application and review process for latest verification program hiatus

The process of getting your Twitter account verified can be a mystery sometimes, but one thing is always certain: The program will just stop for periods of time while the company works out the kinks.

Twitter announced the latest unplanned verification program hiatus today, citing improvements to be made to the application and review progress:

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.

The verification program was infamously suspended by Twitter in 2017 after white nationalist accounts were badged with the verified checkmark – oops! Fast-forward four years and verification was born again like a flaming phoenix rising out of some very confusing ashes. How do you know those ashes are real if not for verification?!

The team spent the extended hiatus putting a lot of thought into how verification should work on Twitter, and the result was a criteria that anyone could read and understand. The only catch is that interpretation of that criteria is left to reviewers at Twitter who may read the rules differently from applications. Back to square one?

Twitter has spent much of this year fine tuning how verification works with a simpler application process and clearer rules. This program launched in May before almost immediately hitting the brakes for a few weeks.

At the time, Twitter cited an overload of verification requests to process as reason for the temporary pause. This time may be more focused on feedback from users as well as the experience of those involved in the process.

Fortunately for eager Twitter users hoping to pick up the blue badge and white check, it doesn’t sound like this break will last quite as long as the one four years ago.

For more on Twitter’s verification policies, read Twitter’s explainer here and find 9to5Mac‘s guide to applying here.