Systrom and Porch made their first trip to Los Angeles in 2013 with a new feature to woo celebrities: verification. Instagram was shamelessly copying a feature that Twitter offered, placing blue checkmark badges next to accounts to certify that the person behind them was indeed who they said they were. The verification badge had started as a measure to protect against impersonation but quickly evolved into a status symbol. If you were verified on Twitter, you were important enough that someone might want to impersonate you.
