https://techcrunch.com/2017/11/15/twitter-removes-verified-c...

Not pictured: innumerable other accounts which were never granted a blue check in the first place, despite being the easily verifiable real accounts of journalists and public figures.

It was de facto a caste system of political favor and connections.

No matter how prominent someone might be on this side of the Atlantic, it never mattered, meanwhile mid-managers and coders at no-name startups had blue checks because, I mean, they knew someone at Twitter- and who else is verifying people? I don’t really fault them for verifying people they personally knew.

But it meant that you had a situation where (and no offence meant to them) “nobodies” (as in, non-promenant figures) were “in the club” with heads of state, companies and heads of industry.

So there was a definite whiff of nepotism, because it was a de-facto status symbol.