Twitter said it was going to start removing the blue "verified" checkmarks on accounts that aren't paying for Twitter Blue—and on Sunday, it did so, at least for one account. The New York Times' Twitter account has been stripped of the blue badge that used to denote its "verified" status; NBC News reports it seems to be the only account thus far that has been. Others could be coming, however, as Musk simply said Saturday would mark the start of the checkmark removal. Early Sunday, Twitter CEO Elon Musk confirmed, in response to a user who posted about the Times' announcement that it wouldn't pay for Twitter Blue, "Oh ok, we’ll take it off then."
He later tweeted that the Times puts out "propaganda" and called the newspaper's Twitter feed so "unreadable" that it's like "diarrhea," offering his advice that all media outlets should tweet only their top articles. He also said it was "hypocritical" of the Times to force readers to pay for a subscription, when the paper itself refuses to pay for Twitter verification, Fox News reports. As of Sunday night, some of the Times' side accounts still had blue checkmarks while others had gold checkmarks, which Twitter rolled out in December to signify that an account belongs to a business or organization, TechCrunch reported at the time. The main Times account had neither. As the Washington Post notes, Musk has had a "years-long grudge" against reporters critical of him, and he's long complained about the Times specifically. (More New York Times stories.)
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