The blue tick verification of the New York Times was taken down on Sunday by Twitter CEO Elon Musk.
The New York Times, which was first published in 1851, is a daily newspaper based in New York City, America. According to reports, there will be 8.6 million paid digital subscribers and 740,000 paid print subscribers worldwide in 2022.
The New York Times had previously stated that it would not subscribe to Twitter Blue unless it was absolutely necessary for their reporting.
The removal of NY Times seems to be retaliation for refusing to make payment for Twitter service.
“New York Times Says It Won’t Pay For Twitter Verification,” stated a tweet from a verified UX/UI Twitter account (@cb doge).
Musk relied on the tweet on Sunday, stating that it will revoke the news outlet’s verification.
“Oh ok, we’ll take it off then,” he replied.
He went further his personal Twitter account to tweet “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.”
It was noted on Monday that the US news outlet’s verification badge had been taken off, and it appeared to be the only account affected at the time.
The CEO and chief engineer of SpaceX, Elon Musk, previously announced in March that legacy verified users would lose their blue ticks from the site as of April 1 unless they paid the US$8 per month subscription cost for Twitter Blue, while businesses pay the US$1,000 per month.
It was noted that as of Monday, blue ticks of legacy verified users who had not yet paid the US$8 monthly subscription cost for Twitter Blue were still present.
On Sunday, Twitter also removed the information that differentiated between legacy verified accounts and Twitter Blue subscribers, with users told when clicking the tick that the account is “verified because it’s subscribed to Twitter Blue or is a legacy verified account.”
The removal of historical verification badges could take a while because it might involve a lot of physical labour, according to the Washington Post.
