X is giving blue checks to people with more than 2,500 Premium followers

[Pelican Press 0]

X is giving blue checks to people with more than 2,500 Premium followers

Last night, several prominent journalists and other

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

(complained in many cases) about unexpectedly regaining their verified blue checks on Elon Musk’s X platform. One of them, Peter Kafka, shared a message from X showing that the upgrade was no accident.

“As an influential member of the community on X, we’ve given you a complimentary subscription to X Premium subject to X Premium Terms by selecting this notice,” it states.

A subsequent tweet from X provided an explanation: Any accounts with over 2,500 verified (ie, paid Premium or Premium+ blue tick subscribers) get Premium features for free, and any with over 5,000 get the ad-free Premium+ tier, also gratis.

based on all the confused tweets i’m seeing, it looks like

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

/ X is starting to really ramp up the roll out of this now

if you suddenly have a blue checkmark even though you’re not paying for one, this is why:

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

— Matt Binder (@MattBinder)

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

Prior to this, the only users to get free Premium blue checks have been those with large follower numbers (in the million range, minimum), along with celebrities and corporations/media companies. The new move appears to be a way to bring influential users with lower follower counts (journalists largely) into the fold.

So what prompted this? X may have decided it needs more journalists with blue checks. In the wake of recent events (the Taiwan earthquake, Turkey elections, Baltimore bridge collapse), some users complained that X is no longer the gold standard breaking news platform that

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

used to be.

That’s likely because journalists, who discover or amplify such news, have seen reduced prominence while X’s algorithms amplify blue check content and replies. That means know-nothing or shitcoin promoters with 25 followers who paid 8 bucks will appear atop replies, rather than an experienced journalist who can furnish useful, truthful information.

With the blue check now being a mark of shame in many cases, a fair number of the users who regained one aren’t necessarily happy about it. “*****, I’ve been forcibly bluechecked. How do I opt out,” wrote @emptywheel. “oh no,” Katie Notopoulos tweeted. “I am become bluecheck, promoter of shibacoin.”

*****. I’ve been forcibly bluechecked.

How do I opt out?

— emptywheel (@emptywheel)

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

i am become bluecheck, promoter of shibacoin

— Katie Notopoulos (@katienotopoulos)

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

news, gear,

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

, Elon Musk, blue check, social media, X Corp, Premium
#giving #blue #checks #people #Premium #followers

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up