I’ve been forcibly blue-checked on Elon Musk's X. Here’s what it’s like.

If you’ve been on X, the Elon Musk-owned platform formerly known as Twitter, over the past day or so, you’ve likely seen at least one influential account you follow share their shock (and dismay) over receiving a blue checkmark on their profile. Tweet may have been deleted Tweet may have been deleted As previously reported, Musk changed the verification rules on X – once again. Now, any user who has at least 2,500 followers who pay for the $8 per month X Premium subscription service will get a free X Premium subscription of their own. And one of the “perks” of the subscription service is the blue checkmark badge. Tweet may have been deleted Apparently, though, not too many noticed Musk’s new policy before the blue checkmarks began forcing their way on to their accounts.Well, if you received a blue checkmark on the house courtesy of Elon Musk…welcome to the club!Last April, I became one of the first recipients of a “spite” blue checkmark, as some have come to see these badges, because I was a member of a small group including @dril who covered the Block the Blue campaign — an effort from some of the platform’s power users to block any paying blue checkmark user on the site.Here’s what it’s likeMany users have asked me about it over the past year, inquiring just how “paid” X looks for a user that is, well, not paying.I can confirm that involuntarily badged users not only get the blue checkmark badge…I’ve been forcibly blue-checked on Elon Musk's X. Here’s what it’s like.