X has reportedly started selling user accounts that are not in use anymore, asking a flat fee of $50,000 to begin a purchase.
In November 2022, the new Twitter owner revealed the idea of kicking off such a program into effect in the coming months.
The billionaire had mentioned that a vast number of handles had been taken by “bots and trolls” and he will start “freeing them up next month”.
A follower had then suggested a “Handle Marketplace” where people could sell accounts to each other.
Now, emails seen by Forbes reveal that an X team called@Handle Team has started work on a “handle marketplace for the purchase of account names left unused by the people who originally registered them”.
“X has emailed solicitations to potential buyers requesting a flat fee of $50,000 to initiate a purchase,” the report said.
The emails came from active X employees, saying that the company recently made updates to its @handle guidelines, process, and fees.
Musk or X did not officially comment on the report.
Reports earlier this year said that Musk planned to free up as many as 1.5 billion usernames “soon.”
