Elon Musk selectively providing free verified Twitter accounts while others have to pay

Select "Twitter Blue" verified accounts are receiving free subscriptions while others have to pay $8 per month, the company's CEO Elon Musk confirmed.

Twitter began removing the blue check marks on "legacy verified accounts" on Thursday and recommended that these users subscribe to the Twitter Blue service. After the change, high-profile figures like Pope Francis had unverified accounts.

Some users began complaining that celebrities like Stephen King and LeBron James now have free "Twitter Blue" subscriptions while other users who were previously verified before Musk's purchase of Twitter have to pay. 

"My Twitter account says I’ve subscribed to Twitter Blue. I haven’t. My Twitter account says I’ve given a phone number. I haven’t," King tweeted on Thursday. 

Musk replied, "You’re welcome namaste."

Musk also replied to a tweet about James' account automatically having a paid subscription tag on it and acknowledged that he is covering the fees for select accounts.

"I’m paying for a few personally," Musk wrote.

In response to that tweet, Katrina Pearson, an advisor to former President Trump's 2016 presidential campaign, wrote, "Charity for celebrities, but peasants pay up. lol"

User Sharon May reacted to King's free subscription, which costs others $8 per month.

"Ok why does a multi millionaire get it free and the rest of us peasants have to pay???????" she wrote.