New York Times strips Twitter of verification checkmark after refusing to pay Elon Musk new fees

The New York Times Twitter account was stripped of its “verified” status on Sunday.That comes days after the paper announced it would not exceed its $1,000 monthly fee.

As of Sunday morning, the New York Times Twitter account, which boasts 55 million followers, didn’t have a check mark next to its name for the first time in years since the new fee-based tick was rolled out.

Under the new system, individual users will have to pay $8 per month for validated blue checks, while businesses will have to pay a fee of $1,000 or more in exchange for gold-validated checks.

Besides the Times numerous media outlets Politico, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Buzzfeed and others have all announced that they will not pay fees and will not refund checkmark fees to reporters who have paid.

Musk appeared to take a keen interest in The New York Times’ rejection, but on Sunday morning, the account lost its checkmark after Musk joked that he would cancel it on Saturday night. was one of the only accounts that The Wall Street Journal then dropped its stock as well.

He also said the Times was “incredibly hypocritical” in asking readers for their own subscription fees and then refusing to pay.

Twitter CEO Elon Musk said the New York Times was “incredibly hypocritical” in asking readers to pay for subscriptions and then refusing to do so.

In late March, Twitter announced that it was “phasing out” the old checkmark system starting April 1, and that businesses and people who wanted to verify their accounts would have to pay a new fee.

Last Thursday, The New York Times announced plans to no longer pay for verified checkmarks and to pay journalists only in “rare cases where reporting is necessary.”

The Washington Post responded in step with The Times, telling CNN’s Oliver Darcy, “It’s clear that the verified checkmark no longer represents authority or expertise.”

According to Darcy, LA Times management spread similar sentiment in an internal memo sent to employees.

“First of all, verification no longer establishes authority or credibility,” wrote the editor-in-chief of the LA Times. “Instead, it just means someone paid for a Twitter Blue subscription.”

Second, while Twitter remains an important news gathering tool, it is not as reliable as it once was. We also don’t charge you to verify your organization on Twitter. Whether there’s any real value in doing so is still unclear, beyond all of us revealing that he’s an LA Times staffer. ”

Shortly after midnight on Saturday, Mr. Musk responded to a Twitter user who mocked the Times’ decision not to pay for the check: “Okay, I’ll withdraw it.” Shortly after that, the publication checkmark disappeared.

Hours later, Musk tweeted that the paper was “propaganda.”

“A true tragedy [The New York Times] Their propaganda isn’t even funny,” Musk wrote early Sunday morning.

“Also, their feed is the equivalent of Twitter’s diarrhea. I can’t read it,” he added.

The New York Times said on Thursday it would not pay for verification of Twitter accounts.

Since Twitter’s announcement, many public figures have indicated that they will not pay for verification.

basketball player LeBron James said Friday He didn’t pay the $8 fee. He tweeted:

James mistakenly thought it would cost $5 when it actually cost $8. Called “Twitter Blue,” the feature is already available to users willing to pay.

Others, including Chrissy Teigen, Dionne Warwick, and rapper Ice-T, have also suggested not paying for the feature.

Last week, Musk overtook Barack Obama as the most followed Twitter user, with 133.08 million followers compared to Obama’s 133.04 million.

That’s because the CEO of Twitter He ordered the company’s engineers to program an algorithm to “boost” his tweets.