[pjc50]

I'd very much like to separate "paid" from "is using real name"; many of the twitter accounts I follow aren't people under their real names.

[scholia]

Yes, fair point. At the moment, "verified" means you are the real Donald Trump, or whoever, not a parody account. What would you be verifying if it wasn't an identifiable name (real name, stage name, etc)?

Under what I was suggesting, you would still be able to follow whoever you liked, whether verified or not. However, you would be able to block all the unverified users....