Twitter has removed the file check mark to check On the main account of the New York Times, one of the most popular news organizations as CEO Elon Musk.
The removal comes as several high-profile Twitter users prepare to lose the blue check marks that helped verify their identity and distinguish them from scammers on the social media platform.
mask owner of twitter, Set a Saturday deadline for verified users To buy a premium Twitter subscription or lose checks on their profile. The Times said in Thursday’s story that it will not pay Twitter to verify its corporate accounts.
Early Sunday, Musk tweeted that the Times’ pick tag It will be removed. Later, he made disparaging remarks about the newspaper, which was published extensively on Twitter, and about flaws in partially automated driving systems at Tesla, the electric car company, which he also runs.
Other Times accounts, such as its business news and opinion pages, still had blue or gold checkmarks on Sundays, as did several reporters at the news organization.
“We do not plan to pay the monthly check-mark fee for our corporate accounts on Twitter,” the newspaper said in a statement on Sunday. “We also will not reimburse Twitter Blue reporters for their personal accounts, except in rare circumstances where such status is necessary for reporting purposes,” the newspaper added.
The Associated Press, which also said it would not pay for check marks, remained in its accounts at midday Sunday.
Twitter did not respond to emailed questions Sunday about removing The New York Times checkmark.
Checkmark maintenance costs range from $8 per month for individual web users to a starting price of $1,000 per month for an enterprise check, plus $50 per month for each affiliate or employee account. Twitter doesn’t check individual accounts to make sure who they say they are, as was the case with previous blue checks that were distributed to public figures and others during the platform’s pre-Musk administration.
While the cost of Twitter Blue subscriptions may seem like nothing to the most popular Twitter commenters, celebrity users from basketball star LeBron James to Star Trek’s William Shatner have been reluctant to join. Seinfeld actor Jason Alexander has vowed to leave the platform if Musk takes his blue check.
The White House is also passing on enrollment in paid accounts, according to a memo sent to staff. While Twitter gave a free gray label to President Joe Biden and members of his cabinet, lower-level employees won’t get Twitter Blue benefits unless they pay for it themselves.
“If you see an impersonation that you believe violates Twitter’s stated impersonation policies, alert Twitter using Twitter’s public impersonation portal,” said the staff memo from White House official Rob Flaherty.
Alexander, the actor, said there are bigger issues in the world but without the blue tick, “anyone can claim to be me” so if he loses it, he’s gone.
“Anyone who shows up with him = an impostor. I’m telling you this while I’m still in charge,” he wrote on Twitter.
After buying Twitter for $44 billion in October, Musk has been trying to boost revenue for the struggling platform by getting more people to pay the premium subscription fee. But his move also reflects his assertion that blue check marks have become an undeserved or “corrupt” symbol for elite figures, news reporters and others who were given verification for free by Twitter’s previous leadership.
Besides protecting celebrities from copycats, one of the main reasons Twitter marked profiles with a blue check mark some 14 years ago was to check politicians, activists, people who suddenly find themselves in the news, as well as little-known journalists on a small scale. Posts around the world, as an additional tool to reduce misinformation coming from accounts impersonating people. Most of the “old blue checks” are not household names and they are not meant to be.
One of Musk’s first product moves after taking over Twitter was to launch a service that gives out blue checks to anyone willing to pay $8 a month. But it was quickly inundated with fraudulent accounts, including those impersonating Nintendo, pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly, Musk’s companies Tesla, and SpaceX, so Twitter was forced to temporarily suspend the service days after it launched.
The relaunched service costs $8 per month for web users and $11 per month for iPhone or Android app users. Subscribers should see fewer ads, be able to post longer videos, and feature their tweets more prominently.
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