Big follower accounts receive free blue check from X
In a recent policy reversal, X, previously known as Twitter, announced that users with a large number of followers will now be granted a complimentary subscription and the iconic blue checkmark.
Before Musk, the blue checkmark was used as a verification system for large accounts, including celebrities, institutions and journalists.
But Musk saw the system as unfair to regular users and changed the blue checks to only go to paying subscribers, meaning thousands of holders were denied the feature.
As of late Wednesday, some users were surprised and even angry to find that the blue check mark had been returned.
A message sent by the platform explained that they were given free subscriptions because they were an “influential member” of X.
The site added that it “reserves the right to cancel a free subscription at its sole discretion.”
Musk said last week that “going forward, all X accounts with more than 2,500 verified followers will get Premium features for free, and accounts with more than 5,000 subscribers will get Premium for free.”
Premium or Premium benefits include discounted ads and higher placement in platform feeds, as well as access to Grok, X’s AI chatbot.
Some users who received the blue check saw it as Musk’s bid to revive the struggling platform.
“Translation: Pay $8? Just kidding. Please help me. But don’t say a word too free about me or my Tower of Babel garbage,” actor Jeffrey Wright, who received the unwanted check, said in a message to X.
Since Musk bought Twitter for $44 billion in 2022, the platform’s ad business has collapsed as marketers resented his leadership and the company’s mass firings that rolled back content moderation.
X on Tuesday named company veteran Kylie McRoberts as its new chief security officer as it seeks to boost revenue from advertising, which remains the site’s main source of revenue.
By most industry-accepted metrics, X has lost users since Musk took over, but the company says activity on the site has increased.
