When the news of an 8$/month verified account came out, I naively thought that meant verified would still mean that they verified the identity of the user. The badge should be swapped out for a green dollar sign and called “Paid” instead. There is obviously no verification involved now.
It makes me wonder how the vetting process occurred before? Did they ever have fake accounts sneak through in the past? I assume there was some contact with the real person/celebrity/company, but could a disgruntled ex-PR rep for some celeb have created the account, and had enough secret info/credentials/whatever to pass the vetting and then start tweeting nonsense?
But the fact that the vetting process was completely halted is just nuts.