Recent events make it pretty clear that this was never true. Verification wasn't for the "elite," but-- get this--verify a user's identity. Being able to buy legitimacy for $8 to pretend to be anyone makes all the blue checks useless. Also, only pushing tweets by blue-check users who paid the $8 literally creates the problem he "wanted to solve" by creating a paying elite whose speech is prioritized over nonpaying users. The poor are punished; how's that for equality/fairness/free speech?