Just as Elon Musk said, X is doling out free Premium and Premium memberships to accounts with a high number of verified followers.
Multiple X users on Wednesday reported seeing the familiar blue “Verified” checkmark next to their handles despite not paying for either paid X subscription tier. Musk last week announced that X accounts with over 2,500 “verified subscriber followers” would receive a free Premium membership; while accounts with over 5,000 would receive a free Premium Plus membership.
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
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if you suddenly have a blue checkmark even though you’re not paying for one, this is why: pic.twitter.com/T1XaBEeGgn