SAN FRANCISCO - X owner Elon Musk is giving away free premium features – including the once-coveted blue verification checkmarks – to some of the social network’s most popular users.

Mr Musk pledged last week to start handing out the free features to people who had more than 2,500 verified followers.

This week, several users noticed that blue checkmarks had reappeared on their profile.

Some users who got the blue checkmarks this week were perplexed as to how they got there, and the company sent some users a notification explaining the change.

Typically, accounts must pay for X’s premium monthly subscription to receive a blue badge, which was used by Twitter’s old management to distinguish and verify the identities of notable users.

It is a change of strategy for Mr Musk, who has criticised old Twitter’s decision to hand out the checkmarks to prominent accounts.

Mr Musk called that strategy a “lords and peasants” system, and removed all legacy blue checkmarks shortly after taking over the company, requiring people to pay for them instead.

Now, 18 months after officially taking over, he is taking a page out of the old company’s playbook.

A spokesperson declined to comment.

Technology website Gizmodo reported on April 4 that many popular users were racing to remove their reinstated blue checkmark because its reputation became tarnished when Mr Musk made it a paid feature. BLOOMBERG