Elon Musk gives away X checkmark to "influential community members"

After taking the reins in October 2022 of what was then called Twitter (now X), Elon Musk established a series of changes to shape the platform to his liking. One of them, and logically the most relevant, was to rename the social network. But there were other novelties such as, for example, that an account would have to pay -monthly or annually, depending on his decision- to have the verification mark.

The price set by the tycoon for any profile to have the blue badge is at least $8 per month or $84 per year. This payment grants the user a Premium account. Now, Musk decided to retract and 'give away' the check mark to what the platform calls "influential members of the community," as reported by Variety magazine.

A few days ago, Musk clarified that in order for those "influential community members" to be granted the blue tick, they have to have more than 2,500 verified users in their followers list. These will get the Premium account for free, while those who hoard more than 5,000 verified followers will get the Premium+ profile features (it's priced at $16 per month or $168 per year).

"Going forward, all 𝕏 accounts with over 2500 verified subscriber followers will get Premium features for free and accounts with over 5000 will get Premium+ for free," Musk wrote on his profile on March 28.