海角大神

If anonymity breeds cruelty online, will verified identities lead to a more civil conversation?

Less than 24 hours after "Ghostbusters" star Leslie Jones received a barrage of聽racist and misogynistic聽tweets,聽Twitter has opened the floodgates on applications for its that confirms users really are who they say they are.

Starting Tuesday, all users聽can聽, Twitter announced. Account verification was previously reserved for celebrities, journalists, and other users and organizations whose accounts were considered "of public interest."聽Verified accounts聽鈥撀爏ignified through a blue badge to the right of a profile name聽鈥撀爄nform users that individuals or organizations' accounts are authentic.聽

The announcement appears to be one of Twitter鈥檚 solutions to curbing hate speech on its micro-blogging site. While more verified accounts could parse out online trolls and others, such as those who targeted Ms. Jones, it鈥檚 unclear if the move will solve this problem. Yet, as one blogger tweeted Tuesday afternoon, it鈥檚 a shift in the right direction.

Twitter聽did not explicitly state聽Tuesday whether the expansion of verified accounts is linked to filtering out abuse. Officially,聽Twitter expanded the verification process "to make it even easier for people on Twitter," said Tina Bhatnagar, Twitter's vice president of user services, in a press release.

"We hope opening up this application process results in more people finding great, high-quality accounts to follow, and for these creators and influencers to connect with a broader audience," she said.

Out of 300 million monthly Twitter users, some 187,000 are verified, according to the press release.

Twitter introduced verified accounts in 2009 following a landmark lawsuit over , reported Motherboard, an online magazine. Tony La Russa, who was then the manager of the St. Louis Cardinals, sued Twitter over an account that he alleged in his name. Within a day of Twitter being served the lawsuit, it removed the controversial account, and it introduced verified accounts soon afterward.

In January, Twitter revoked the verified status of Milo Yiannopoulos, a highly controversial writer and free speech advocate who tweets under the @Nero handle and writes for conservative outlet Breitbart.com, for violating its policies. Buzzfeed speculated that Mr. Yiannopoulos was unverified for聽 According to Twitter鈥檚 verified accounts guidelines, an account may lose its verified status if the profile information, original purpose of the account, or tweet privacy settings change, or if tweets become protected.

Any account in which Twitter revokes its verified status is not eligible to regain the status. Mr. Yiannopolous also was an instigator in the targeted attack of Jones聽on Monday, for which he was permanently barred from Twitter the next day.

Ever since it was created, Twitter has been criticized for how it addresses hate speech and abusive accounts. Twitter started to move away from its permissive free-speech attitude in 2013, following several high-profile incidents involving online trolls. Since then, Twitter has strengthened its guidelines against abuse, and established the Trust & Safety Council in February 2016, composed of 40 organizations and academics, including the National Domestic Violence Hotline, LGBT advocacy group GLAAD, the Anti-Defamation League, and UK-based charity Anti-Bullying Pro.