Twitter Pauses New Verifications After Getting Flooded With Requests

It’s a small graphic, but it’s a big deal to many people. Twitter’s “verified” symbol — the little blue checkmark — tells the world you are who you say you are.

After reopening its verification program last week, Twitter is apparently overrun with applications for the coveted icon. On Friday, the social media company said it’s hitting pause on accepting new requests while it works through its backlog of unprocessed requests.

“We’ll reopen requests soon! (we pinky swear!),” a tweet from Twitter’s @verified account assured users.

We’re rolling in verification requests. So we gotta hit pause on accepting any more for now while we review the ones that have been submitted.

We’ll reopen requests soon! (we pinky swear)

— Twitter Verified (@verified) May 28, 2021

The pause comes just days after Twitter restarted its verification program, which it shut down in 2017 amid controversy surrounding what, exactly, the symbol represented. Some saw the mark as tacit approval by the company of those they bestowed it on, including some users later identified as white supremacists.

Twitter says it spent that downtime reevaluating its application process. One change: Twitter will now only hand out the symbol to accounts that are “notable, authentic and active” on the platform. Previously users had only to verify that they were the person their profile purported them to be.

It’s unclear when Twitter plans to reopen verification requests. The company didn’t immediately respond to a request for more information.