Twitter has put its reform efforts for verification process on hold owing to the upcoming mid-term US elections. Twitter will channel its attention towards areas it thinks to need more attention. Twitter will be focusing on getting rid of bots, fake news, and spread of misinformation on its platform. The decision to halt the process came after the social media giant was criticized for verifying the account of Jason Keller, who allegedly organized a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville.

Twitter originally rolled out verification for high-profile public figures, so that users would know whether an account belonged to them or was a fake one. It gradually extended the reach of the program to encompass the likes of tech writers with just a few thousand followers, before creating an application process.

Twitter’s problems began when it verified accounts belonging to neo-Nazis and conspiracy theorists, the blue check-mark seen as Twitter validating the accounts as legitimate sources of information. Twitter argues that it was only confirming that they were who they said they were, and not endorsing anything they tweeted, but the public perception remained that the blue tick represented a form of status. Twitter responded by unverifying controversial accounts and suspending new applications.

The company announced earlier this year that it would open applications to everyone, not just public figures, but reports state that the work on this has now been suspended.  The company clarified that they do not have the bandwidth to currently take on this process and they are already doing too many things. Twitter also said that they will come back with a more holistic plan for verification.