Elon Musk Is Mysteriously Re-Verifying X Accounts as the Platform Cleanses Bots, Spam Some users noticed that blue checkmarks had re-appeared on their accounts this week.
By Emily Rella
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Elon Musk is on a crusade to rid X, the social media formally known as Twitter, of bots.
On Thursday, the platform's Safety account notified users that their follower count might drop as spam and bot accounts are purged from the site.
Today, we're kicking off a significant, proactive initiative to eliminate accounts that violate our Rules against platform manipulation and spam. While we aim for accuracy in the accounts we remove, we're casting a wide net to ensure X remains secure and free of bots. As a…
— Safety (@Safety) April 4, 2024
"Today, we're kicking off a significant, proactive initiative to eliminate accounts that violate our Rules against platform manipulation and spam," the post reads. "While we aim for accuracy in the accounts we remove, we're casting a wide net to ensure X remains secure and free of bots."
Related: Twitter Will Begin Removing Blue Checkmarks
Though Musk has long since campaigned against spam accounts on X (it was a major area of improvement he tried to campaign against when he first took over the social media platform), the news arrives after the appointment of two heads of the Safety team — Kylie McRoberts who is now Head of Safety and Yale Cohen who is now the Head of Brand Safety and Advertiser.
Musk had infamously dissolved the company's safety division shortly after he took the reigns.
Last week, Musk also announced on X that users with thousands of verified followers will get a blue checkmark, a once coveted feature that Musk took away and started charging for as a part of X's Blue subscription-based system.
Going forward, all ? 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
Musk did not explain the reason for the reversal.
Previously, non-famous Twitter users with blue checkmarks were mostly verified through their places of employment. There was also a period when people could apply for verified status and receive a blue checkmark if approved. Upon Musk's takeover, however, verification status costs $8 monthly, and anyone can get verified.
Related: Elon Musk Says He Is Deleting 1.5 Million Twitter Accounts
Musk did not clarify how long the rollout of re-verifying accounts would take.
