Instagram’s verification system is useful, fair, and Twitter should copy it

Who deserves a “verified” badge? On Twitter, the issue has been surprisingly contentious. Last November, the company briefly verified the account of Jason Kessler, a white supremacist who organized the 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, VA. Reaction to Kessler getting his badge was swift and negative, and Twitter used the occasion to say — as it now likes to do, all the time — that it would use the occasion to rethink everything. In the case of verification,