Twitter’s new owner, Elon Musk, has begun to enforce policies that threaten to remove blue checkmarks from formerly verified Twitter accounts. The blue checkmark previously denoted accounts that had been verified for authenticity and were given to accounts of celebrities, journalists, and media outlets. However, users seeking verification will now have to pay $8 a month for Twitter Blue, a controversial subscription program under which any account can obtain a blue checkmark. The rollout of these changes on Thursday was chaotic, with numerous high-profile users asserting that they would not pay for blue checkmarks under the new policy.

Trying to figure out why you aren’t getting the YouTube ‘verify it’s you’ code on your phone? Here’s how to verify your YouTube channel on a mobile phone. Google (YouTube) will tell you “Google sent a notification to your phone. Open the YouTube app, tap Yes on the prompt, then tap (some number) on your phone to verify it’s you.” But the verification code never shows up on your phone!

If you are on Match.com, you may have seen the new Match.com verification system. This is an option that let’s you verify who you are by connecting to your social media accounts such as Facebook, Twitter, even LinkedIn. Let us repeat that: on a dating site, Match, you connect to your social media accounts so people know who you are.

If you’ve set up Google two-factor authentication (also known as 2-step verification – the second step is an SMS text message) and can’t figure out how to get your email program, iPhone mail application (or any other iPhone or Android phone application) or your iPad or other tablet apps to work with Google services such as Gmail or Google Voice, here is a simple, step-by-step tutorial for how to set up an email client or any other app or application to work with your two-factor verification protected Google account.

Here is why you must set up two-factor authentication (also called 2-step verification, or simply “2FA”) wherever you can. Many places now offer it, including Facebook, Paypal, Twitter, and, of course, Gmail (Google). You may in fact remember the story of how Naoki Hiroshima lost their Twitter account, valued at $50,000, to a hacker. Basically the hacker managed to get into and redirect Hiroshima’s email domain, allowing the hacker to do password resets on some of Hiroshima’s accounts, and intercept the password reset emails. It’s very easy for someone to do a password reset on an account if they have the email address, however with 2-factor authentication is becomes a lot harder.

Your eyes may glaze over when anybody mentions Google two-step SMS verification (also known in some circles as Google 2-Factor Authentication), but in reality, if you have any sort of Google account (Gmail, etc.), and a cell phone to get a text message, it’s easy as pie to set up. It is certainly far easier to set up than it is to deal with the aftermath of someone hacking into your Google account.

If you are asking yourself “Where is the QR code to scan to set up the Google 2-Step Verification authenticator app”, you may be fairly frustrated at this point trying to find that lousy barcode. Don’t blame yourself, it is completely inobvious. Here’s how to find the QR code to set up the Google 2-factor authentication authenticator app.

Twitter co-founder Biz Stone has confirmed that Twitter will begin the beta roll-out of a new Twitter service – the Twitter verified account service – designed to confirm and verify that the Twitter accounts of celebrities, public personalities, and other famous people are actually the accounts of the people they say they are, and not imposters and pretenders.