Musk Kills New York Times’ Gold ‘Verified’ Check Mark

Elon Musk has stripped the New York Times‘ main Twitter account of its gold-check-mark “verified” badge, after the paper said that it wouldn’t start paying for the privilege under the social media platform’s new approach. 

According to Bloomberg, “Twitter responded to a request for comment with a poop emoji, its now-automated response to press queries.”

Previously, Musk had announced that, on April 1, Twitter would start pulling previously free check marks from “legacy” accounts that hadn’t started paying for them under the company’s new approach, where check marks will only be provided to paying “Twitter Blue” subscribers.    

Under the new regime, organizations like the Times would have to pay $1,000 a month for a gold check mark. Individual reporters and others can get the blue check mark and a variety of other Twitter Blue perks starting at $8 a month. Over time, those perks are to include prioritized placements in tweet replies, a higher character limit on tweets, and the ability to vote in tweeted polls. 

As Saturday, April 1 approached, a variety of major media outlets — including the Times, CNN, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post and Politico — said they wouldn’t pay for the checkmarks. 

When Saturday arrived, there was no indication of any check marks being withdrawn. However, on Saturday evening, after the Twitter account @DogeDesigner reminded Musk about the Times stance against paying, Musk replied, “Oh ok, we’ll take it off then.”

Oh ok, we’ll take it off then

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 2, 2023

Hours later, in a since-deleted Tweet, Musk said, “We’ll give [legacy verified accounts] a few weeks grace, unless they tell they won’t pay now, in which we will remove it.”

Sometime over the same night, the check mark on the main Times account vanished. Marks associated with accounts for other Times sections, such as arts and opinion, remained. Reiterating its stance, a Times spokesperson told Reuters, “We also will not reimburse reporters for Twitter Blue for personal accounts, except in rare instances where this status would be essential for reporting purposes.”

On Sunday, Musk called the Times position hypocritical: 

NY Times is being incredible hypocritical here, as they are super aggressive about forcing everyone to pay *their* subscription

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 2, 2023

He also shared some other candid characterizations:

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.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 2, 2023

The Times has 55 million Twitter followers, a number that can serve as an organic, de facto verification that the tweets are indeed coming from the outlet that trafficked Dick Cheney’s lies and paved the way for the disastrous and immoral U.S. invasion of Iraq.  

Based on interviews of two former Twitter employees, the Washington Post reported that the platform is ill-equipped for en masse retractions of the legacy verification marks, which were awarded on the basis of case-by-case evaluations of an individual’s or organization’s worthiness as being “notable.” The employees suggested that trying to do it simultaneously for the no-longer-eligible could cause problems on the platform. 

Credit to Tim Sweeney for realizing this before me https://t.co/92LUkaOEFz

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 2, 2023