Twitter lets users create much longer display names with another character limit increase
The company is under heavy fire after verifying the account of a white supremacist
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Your support makes all the difference.Twitter has more than doubled its character allowance for display names.
Days after officially replacing its 140-character tweet limit with a new 280-character limit, the social platform has done something similar, but much less conspicuous.
Your display name can now be up to 50 characters in length, up from 20.
“Go ahead, add that middle name or even a few more emojis,” said Twitter, which has been attracting a great deal of criticism of late.
Many users see the new 280-character tweet limit as an unnecessary move, and the site has been flooded with updates mocking the change since it came into effect.
The company has also come under heavy fire for verifying the account of a white supremacist.
Jason Kessler, who led a white supremacist demonstration in Charlottesville that spiralled into violence as a driver mowed down counter-protesters and killed 32-year-old Heather Heyer, was verified earlier this week.
In the aftermath of Ms Heyer’s death, he used the platform to call her a “fat, disgusting Communist” and described her murder as “payback time”.
“Looks like I FINALLY got verified by Twitter. I must be the only working class white advocate with that distinction,” he tweeted this week.
Twitter has temporarily halted new verifications, and says it is reexamining the process.
“We realized some time ago the system is broken and needs to be reconsidered”, said Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey. “And we failed by not doing anything about it. Working now to fix faster”.
You can lengthen your Twitter display name – which isn't the same as your username – by going to your profile page and tapping Edit Profile.
You can change your username through the Settings and Privacy menu, though it has to be unique and can't exceed 15 characters.
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