Twitter has been in the middle of a shitstorm for awhile now, users and the media upset about abuse, trolls, propaganda, etc. They’re now working on a short timeline to curb abuse. It’s not going very well. Yesterday Twitter verified Jason Kessler, the organizer of the Nazi rally in August. The rally that ended up with Heather Heyer being murdered. Kessler gloated about her death on Twitter.

Yes, Twitter endorsed an actual Nazi.

Make no mistake; when Twitter puts the blue check on an account they are endorsing it. They are endorsing that person’s identity is verified. They are endorsing that the person is newsworthy. They now acknowledge the endorsement.

Verified users aren’t just endorsed, they are enabled. My understanding is verified users get extra tools when they use the site. They get a priority user support experience. And it appears that verified users get ranked higher when Twitter decides which tweets to show, particularly replies to public tweets. So Twitter hasn’t just endorsed an actual Nazi, they’ve gone out of their way to enable his speech too.

I want nothing to do with a company like that. I rage quit this week. I’ll probably end up back at some point because I’ll miss it too much, but right now I’m furious.

I’m generally a strong free speech advocate. Twitter was founded on principles of strong free speech. But when we worked on it in the early days we neglected to consider how powerful a free speech tool is in the hands of monstrous people. Demagogues use Twitter incredibly effectively. Propaganda and lies spread faster than truth. Abusers hound their victims into silence. Free speech only works if there are curbs on its abuse. Twitter has failed to do that.