Twitter cracks down on far-right leaders (as Tommy Robinson complains about losing blue tick)

Some of the most recognisable voices on the far right and in the so-called ‘alt right’ movements have lost their verified ‘blue tick’ badges in a Twitter crackdown on hate accounts.

The blue tickmark is used to denote ‘verified’ accounts, and has been seen as a badge of importance, the company said.

Twitter removed the blue ticks from white nationalist Richard Spencer, far-right ‘journalist’ Laura Loomer and English Defence League co-founder Tommy Robinson.

The ‘purge’ has (so far) missed out other far-right figures such as Paul Golding of Britain First.

Many figures on the far right decried the move, describing it as ‘cyber fascism’ and promising to move to other platforms.

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In an update to the site’s terms of service, Twitter said it would now ban accounts which promote hate or violence against others ‘on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, religious affiliation, age, disability, or disease’.

Twitter said in a statement, ‘We are conducting an initial review of verified accounts and will remove verification from accounts whose behavior does not fall within these new guidelines.

Twitter said, ‘Verification has long been perceived as an endorsement. We gave verified accounts visual prominence on the service which deepened this perception.’

The move comes after the company faced a backlash for ‘verifying’ Jason Kessler, a far right activist who organised the deadly white nationalist rally in Charlottesville in August.