Back from the dead: Elon Musk's X sparks confusion with surprise return of free blue ticks

Elon Musk's X has stirred confusion as some users woke up to free blue ticks on Thursday (Apr 4) morning.

For those living under a rock, X, formerly Twitter, for years, used to offer blue tick verification badges to prominent accounts, including those of celebrities, politicians, journalists, and other influential people. 

However, about a year back, months after purchasing Twitter for $44bn (£38bn) in October 2022, this service was turned into a premium service, and users, influential or not, were required to cough up $8 a month to be X "verified".

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More confusion

The paid premium service came with a side dish of confusion as fake accounts masquerading as celebrities or organisations, and parody accounts simply paid for the blue tick and became verified overnight.

Now, on Wednesday night and Thursday morning, the confusion was repeated as people and accounts once stripped of the verification batch woke up to blue ticks.

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Notable figures whose verification badges were reinstated include comedian David Baddiel and Jonathan Pie, a fictional character created by Tom Walker and the @number10cat account, a parody of Downing Street's Larry the Cat.

Since the introduction of the premium subscription, blue ticks have been viewed as a sign of support for Musk and his X strategy. 

The newly re-verified accounts were quick to let the world know that they did not pay for the tick. 

@number10cat wrote: "It seems a blue tick has been added to my account. Just to be clear, I've not paid for it, I didn't ask for it and I don't want it. This account being 'verified' is beyond silly; everyone knows it's me tweeting."

Consequently, several accounts shared instructions on how to remove the symbols through setting changes.

While X has not officially commented on the latest development, Musk previously posted on X that all accounts with more than 2,500 verified followers would receive premium features, including the tick, for free.

In posts discussing the change, some users shared notifications indicating they were receiving the free premium service "as an influential member of the community on X."