Elon Musk, the chief executive officer of Twitter, removed the New York Times’ blue‑tick verification on Sunday. Founded in 1851, the New York Times is a daily newspaper based in New York City, United States, with a worldwide readership that, in 2022, included 740,000 paid print subscribers and 8.6 million paid digital subscribers. The newspaper had previously stated that it would not subscribe to Twitter Blue, except where necessary for reporting.
The removal appeared to be a punishment for the Times’ refusal to pay for the service. A verified UX/UI account (@cb_doge) tweeted, “New York Times says It Won’t Pay For Twitter Verification.” Musk responded to the tweet, saying he would remove the verification: “Oh ok, we’ll take it off then.” He later added on his personal account, “The real tragedy of @NYTimes is that their propaganda isn’t even interesting. Also, their feed is the Twitter equivalent of diarrhea. It’s unreadable. They would have far more real followers if they only posted their top articles. Same applies to all publications.”
Our correspondent confirmed on Monday that the verification badge on the U.S. news outlet had indeed been removed, and it appears to be the only account affected so far. In March, Musk announced that, starting April 1, legacy verified users would lose their blue ticks unless they paid the $8‑per‑month Twitter Blue subscription fee, while organizations would need to pay $1,000 per month. However, as of Monday, many legacy verified users who have not yet paid the $8 fee still retain their badges, according to our correspondent.
On Sunday, Twitter also eliminated the distinction between legacy verified accounts and Twitter Blue subscribers; when users click the tick, the message now reads “verified because it’s subscribed to Twitter Blue or is a legacy verified account.” The Washington Post notes that removing legacy verification badges may take a long time because the process involves many manual steps.
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