Yesterday, several journalists wrote to X that blue checks — marks that used to be displayed on verified profiles and are now available to those who have signed up for a premium subscription to the social network suddenly returned to their profiles.
«As an influential member of the X community, we’re giving you a free Premium subscription», — the messages sent to users say.
In a separate post, Elon Musk previously noted that any accounts with more than 2,500 users with Premium or Premium+ subscriptions receive Premium features for free — while accounts with more than 5,000 premium «friends» will receive Premium+ features (tariff without advertising).
Before that, X had already given away free blue check marks — but only to users with an audience of millions and some celebrities or companies.
What is the reason for such generosity? Engadget website suggeststhat X wants to have more «verified» journalists — due to recent events (earthquake in Taiwan, the Turkish elections, the Baltimore Bridge collapse), some users complained that «is no longer the gold standard news platform that» used to be.
However, not all users were happy about the gifts from Elon Musk — recently, the blue tick was considered more of a privilege for those who did not spare money for X, rather than a sign of a reliable account.
«I have a blue check mark, I have become a Shibacoin promoter», — wrote Business Insider journalist Katie Notopoulos.