The New York Times was stripped of its verified status.
Twitter owner Elon Musk gave a Saturday deadline for individuals and companies wanting to be recognized as legitimate by Twitter to pay him for that designation.
“We aren’t planning to pay the monthly fee for check mark status for our institutional Twitter accounts,” the Times said last week.
On Sunday, the blue check denoting the authenticity of the Times’ Twitter account no longer appeared in the company’s profile.
Musk seemed to take joy in exercising influence over the paper, which has been critical of his business ventures.
“The real tragedy of @NYTimes is that their propaganda isn’t even interesting,” he tweeted Sunday, comparing the Times’ Twitter feed to “diarrhea.”
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Twitter is asking organizations to pay $1,000 a month for Twitter recognition. Check marks until now have indicated the authenticity of an institution’s account. Outlets including the Los Angeles Times and Associated Press said they won’t meet Musk’s mandate. Those outlets both had gold checks indicating Twitter verification Monday afternoon.
The White House also said it wouldn’t pay to have its official handles verified, though Twitter gives gratis grey checkmarks to government institutions.
Musk has struggled to raise revenue at Twitter after spending $44 billion to buy the company in October. He reportedly said in a memo late last month Twitter’s worth had plummeted to $20 billion under his leadership. CNN reported most of the company’s top advertisers ran for cover after Musk’s takeover, which included reinstating users suspended for spreading disinformation and hate speech.
The 173-year-old New York Times, which has won more than 130 Pulitzer Prizes, also said, with few exceptions, employees who pay for individual verification will not be reimbursed. Individuals including NBA superstar LeBron James and top-selling author Stephen King also scoffed at the idea of paying $8 a month to be personally verified by Twitter.
“They should pay me,” tweeted King, who has more than seven million followers.
Both men’s accounts still had blue checks Monday.