X/Twitter gives blue checkmarks to people who have more than 2,500 "friends" with a Premium subscription

Yesterday, several journalists wrote on X that blue checkmarks suddenly returned to their profiles - marks that previously displayed verified profiles, and are now available to those who have purchased a premium subscription on the social network.

"As an influential member of the X community, we provide you with a free Premium subscription," users received messages saying.

Elon Musk previously noted in a separate post: any accounts followed by more than 2,500 users with Premium or Premium+ subscriptions will receive Premium features for free - while accounts with over 5,000 premium "friends" will receive Premium+ features (ad-free tariff).

based on all the confused tweets i'm seeing, it looks like Twitter / 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: pic.twitter.com/T1XaBEeGgn

— Matt Binder (@MattBinder) April 3, 2024

Prior to this, X was already giving out free blue checkmarks - but only to users with a million-strong audience and some celebrities or companies.

So what is the reason for such generosity? The site Engadget suggests that X is aiming to attract more "verified" journalists - following recent events (earthquake in Taiwan, elections in Turkey, collapse of the Baltimore bridge), some users complained that the site was no longer "the gold standard of news platform it used to be."

However, not all users were pleased with the gifts from Elon Musk - recently the blue checkmark was considered more of a privilege for those who did not spare money on X, rather than a sign of a reliable account.

"I have a blue checkmark, I've become a promoter of Shibacoin," wrote Business Insider journalist Katie Notopoulos.