Fast Facts
Elon Musk announced a change that benefits popular accounts on X.They can get Premium for free if they have more than 2500 verified followers.Some were quick to point out frustrations with their accounts
When Elon Musk took over Twitter in October 2022, he wasted no time in making major changes to the long-standing social media platform.
One of those was to announce a new subscription plan around the blue checkmark, which was previously granted to influential users on the platform. Called Premium, it granted any user the blue check, as well as other perks including boosts to replies, long videos, the ability to write longer posts, no ads in the For You page, and more.
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At a starting cost of $3 a month for the basic package ranging to $16 a month for Premium+, Musk’s new system has attracted some attention to the tune of 40,000 subscribers as of 2023, which sounds impressive until you compare it to the size of his follower base (155 million).
On the evening of March 27, Musk tweeted that a change was coming for users with big follower bases, saying that X accounts with over 2,500 verified subscriber followers will now get Premium features for free. Accounts with over 5,000 will get Premium+ free.
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
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 28, 2024
However, some accounts with high follower counts were quick to challenge Musk, saying they have been waiting in a queue to use the subscriptions system for as long as a year.
That’s nice, but it’s been a YEAR since I applied for subscriptions. There are people with a fraction of my following who got approved already.
Why do some people get approved right away while others don’t?
— Clifton Duncan (@cliftonaduncan) March 28, 2024
How about not waiting months and months for the ability to GET subscribers??
— Heel vs Babyface (@heelvsbabyface) March 28, 2024
The commenters are referring to the X Subscriptions plan, which Musk announced in April 2023, promising followers that for the first year of the program they would get 70% of subscriptions on iOS and Android and 92% on web. While some X users that are in the program have disclosed how much they have made, the complaints suggest that it may still be limited as to who gets in.
One possibility for this is that the platform cannot currently afford the payouts for a large group of influencers. According to Fidelity, X is worth 71.5% less now than the $44 billion Musk bought it for in 2022.
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