{"id":1207,"date":"2023-04-02T23:44:56","date_gmt":"2023-04-02T22:44:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/loktaknews.com\/new-york-times-loses-twitter-verified-badge-as-elon-musk-calls-it-propaganda\/%e0%a4%8f%e0%a4%95%e0%a5%8d%e0%a4%b8%e0%a4%95%e0%a5%8d%e0%a4%b2%e0%a5%82%e0%a4%b8%e0%a4%bf%e0%a4%b5\/"},"modified":"2023-04-02T23:44:56","modified_gmt":"2023-04-02T22:44:56","slug":"new-york-times-loses-twitter-verified-badge-as-elon-musk-calls-it-propaganda","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/loktaknews.com\/?p=1207","title":{"rendered":"New York Times Loses Twitter Verified Badge As Elon Musk Calls It Propaganda"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The New York Times said it would not pay for a verified business account.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Washington: <\/b><\/p>\n

Twitter has removed the gold “verified” marker from the New York Times’ main account, as CEO Elon Musk bashed the news organization as on Sunday and the platform transitioned to a paid verification scheme.<\/p>\n

Musk took over the microblogging platform last year and made a priority of opening the “blue checkmark,” indicating an authentic account, to paying subscribers.<\/p>\n

The site announced it would start winding down “legacy” blue checkmarks from April 1.<\/p>\n

The New York Times was among news media companies, firms and charities that had already lost their blue tick and were tagged as verified business accounts with a gold tick under Musk’s new system.<\/p>\n

To retain the gold tick after the rollout of the subscription service dubbed Twitter Blue, these groups would have to pay a monthly fee of $1,000 in the United States, and $50 for each additional affiliated account.<\/p>\n

The New York Times said it would not pay for a verified business account and would subscribe for a blue tick only for journalists finding it essential for their reporting needs.<\/p>\n

As of Sunday, the organization’s main account, with nearly 55 million followers, had lost its gold checkmark, though affiliate accounts, such as for its travel and opinion sections, retained the ticks.<\/p>\n

Many media groups and personalities who also announced they would not pay for Twitter Blue, including basketball star LeBron James, have retained blue or gold checkmarks on their accounts.<\/p>\n

In the early hours of Sunday, Musk targeted the New York Times in several tweets, saying, “The real tragedy of @NYTimes is that their propaganda isn’t even interesting” and calling its main feed the “equivalent of diarrhea” and “unreadable.”<\/p>\n

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The real tragedy of @NYTimes<\/a> is that their propaganda isn’t even interesting<\/p>\n

\u2014 Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 2, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

According to Travis Brown, a Berlin-based software developer who tracks social-media platforms, only a few dozen accounts have so far been unverified, suspended or had profile elements removed since Saturday.<\/p>\n

He said there had been a recent jump in the number of accounts that had made the switch from legacy to the new system — some 60,000 in the past week — but that they were “mostly small accounts, and very few had legacy verification.”<\/p>\n

Since its creation in 2009, the blue tick became a signature element that helped the platform become a trusted forum for newsmakers and campaigners.<\/p>\n

But Musk and his fans said the decision of who got the coveted checkmark was made by fiat in a secretive procedure, and they called it a symbol of an unfair class system.<\/p>\n

The changes under Musk put pressure on companies, journalists and celebrities who used Twitter as their main channel of communication and relied on the blue and gold ticks for credibility.<\/p>\n

They also raise the specter of imposters and jokesters paying for an officially verified, but totally fake account.<\/p>\n

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n