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.
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.