Twitter removes verified blue checkmarks from popular accounts including racists’ accounts

The official Twitter Support account announced big changes and strict rules concerning which accounts get verified with a bright blue check mark on the site, and which don’t. As for now, Twitter has removed the verified status of some accounts, including racism promoters like Richard Spencer and Jason Kessler.

The blue verified badge on Twitter lets people know the authenticity of an account. For now, Twitter has stopped receiving new applications for verification. While it’s also working on a new authentication and verification program and conducting internal reviews on verified accounts to see if they have breached its rules.

According to the updated rules by Twitter, the widely used social network will now remove verification for “behaviors on and off Twitter,” as it says in a blog post,

“Promoting hate and/or violence against, or directly attacking or threatening other people on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, religious affiliation, age, disability, or disease. Supporting organizations or individuals that promote the above.”

Many users of Twitter have endorsed this step, however, some white supremacist people like Richard Spencer have protested against this step of Twitter censorship.

The updated rules of Twitter also states the removal of verification of those accounts who change their display name and bios misleading people, as outlined in the new guidelines.

Twitter has been working on adding numerous features to its app, recently it announced that tweets can be written up to 240 characters, doubling the length people use to write in earlier.