Twitter re-introduced its verification program in 2017 but stopped it once the team became overwhelmed with the response. It then relaunched it in May of 2020, only to stop it a week later, once again citing the enormous demand of requests that the team had to handle.
Over the last few months, Twitter had begun accepting requests for verification again, albeit slowly, with a staggered rollout to keep its team from getting inundated with requests. Now, it says that it has stopped the verification process again.
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.
— Verified (@verified) August 13, 2021
Twitter had several improvements to the approval process already in the works. The team worked on complaints regarding vague rejection emails that gave no or little information about why a particular account was rejected.
Then in a very public faux paux, the company had to remove accounts that it had verified by mistake.
Meet @aykacmis, @degismece, @anlamislar, @aykacti, @kayitlii, and @donmedim, a sextet of blue-check verified Twitter accounts created on June 16th, 2021. None has yet tweeted and all have roughly 1000 followers (and mostly the *same* followers).
cc: @ZellaQuixote pic.twitter.com/V82Wtu0SNr
— Conspirador Norteño (@conspirator0) July 12, 2021
At the time, a Twitter spokesperson had confirmed that the accounts were indeed given verification badges by mistake, saying that they had “mistakenly approved the verification applications of a small number of inauthentic (fake) accounts.”