‘X’ Restores Free Blue Checks For Those With Large Followings

bruce haring

Wed, 3 Apr 2024, 11:57 pm·2-min read

It has been said that one should never look a gift horse in the mouth. Evidently, many X followers don’t support that axiom, as they are up in arms about receiving a free blue checkmark from the service.

X is doling out free Premium and Premium memberships to accounts with a high number of verified followers. Elon Musk announced the program on March 27, but it’s just now being implemented.

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Premium or Premium Plus (normally $8 or $16 per month) is being given away to accounts with at least 2,500 “Verified subscriber” followers (5,000 for Plus) that presumably also pay for access.

Multiple X users on Wednesday reported seeing the blue “Verified” checkmark next to their handles, despite not paying for either paid X subscription tier.

Once given to celebrities and others in the public eye, the checkmarks went away for some after paid verification was rolled out.

Now, it appears that many influential X accounts are once again check-marked, or will be, whether they like it or not.

X users gifted verification under the latest scheme received the following message, according to a screenshot by Peter Kafka of Business Insider.

This is the note they sent me pic.twitter.com/tXffJnBLqd
— Peter Kafka (@pkafka) April 4, 2024

Loved The Wire. Bro you have a bluecheck too! I got it automatically because I have 1M+ followers, which was rolled in before the current generation. I'm just not trying to gain clout by complaining about it. https://t.co/oVMSOpRX2b
— Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) April 4, 2024

What happened? I didn’t pay for this. I would NEVER pay for this.

When did the Blue Check mark start getting passed around again?! 😬 pic.twitter.com/AZdjnIWI3o
— yvette nicole brown (@YNB) April 3, 2024

My check mark showed up a few hours ago, unrequested. Gone by morning if I can figure out how. Neither criticizing the vile management here nor calling you an asshole
for telling us we can't so criticize that management as a means of gaining any clout. Doing it because both… https://t.co/so7ffVb941
— David Simon (@AoDespair) April 4, 2024

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