Following the news that X (ye olde Twitter) has started to give some people free access to the X Premium subscription and blue checkmark whether they want it or not, the social network has started to roll out another tweak. And it isn't going to go down well with those who never wanted that checkmark in the first place.
While X had previously allowed people to hide the blue checkmark, preventing people from knowing that they were an X Premium user, that option is now being removed. As a result, those who have been given X Premium but had no intention of paying for it for whatever reason now have no way to hide it.
The upshot? Anyone who would prefer people not to think they've paid for X Premium can no longer hide their status, although it isn't yet known why that move has been made.
Everything check(mark)s out
The Verge reports that some users have started to receive a notification that warns them they can no longer hide the checkmark after making the option available to users last summer. X seemingly understood that people might not want others to think they gave it money, but something has clearly changed.
Elon Musk's ownership of X, nee Twitter, has proven controversial for all manner of reasons and that has led some to refuse to pay to be verified. But X started giving people a free X Premium account if they met certain follower criteria last week, leaving some recipients to hide the checkmark entirely. That's no longer an option.
As for why this change has been made, we can only assume that X wants to make the X Premium subscription seem more enticing — and the more blue checkmarks people see, the more likely they are to want one.
