https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/n7z5nz/elon-musks-dollar8-twitter-verification-has-begun-is-a-complete-disaster > Almost nothing has gone according to plan since Elon Musk took control over Twitter last month—and whether there even is a plan or not seems doubtful. Case in point: Musk's flagship idea, an $8 paid verification scheme, kicked off on Wednesday night and immediately spiraled into complete disaster.  > Blue checks on Twitter are meant to designate that the person or organization behind the account has been authenticated by Twitter as being who they say they are. It's a necessary feature to stop impersonators from proliferating and emerged after a lawsuit early in Twitter's history. Musk's big idea since he took over Twitter has been to cast this blue check as some sort of status symbol, and even the playing field by letting anyone pay $8 for a badge. Many observers warned that this would let impersonators and scammers appear to be verified on Twitter—exactly the opposite of what the badge is supposed to do—and that is precisely what happened once the paid scheme kicked in: A flood of impersonators.