Elon Musk punished The New York Times by removing its gold check mark. The businessman warned this would happen several weeks ago. Those who did not pay the $8 per month ($1,000 for organizations) would lose their badge as of April 1. The New York Times confirmed that Musk made good on his threat. On Sunday, its main account lost the gold check mark.
The well-known newspaper already warned that it did not intend to pay for the check mark. In a statement issued last Sunday, The New York Times said that not only would it not pay for the check mark, but it would also not pay for journalists who wanted to keep their check, except in cases where it was necessary for "reporting purposes":
We aren’t planning to pay the monthly fee for check mark status for our institutional Twitter accounts. We also will not reimburse reporters for Twitter Blue for personal accounts, except in rare instances where this status would be essential for reporting purposes.
Musk was quick to reply. First, he withdrew the badge and later he uploaded a tweet calling out the newspaper for its propaganda.
The real tragedy of @NYTimes is that their propaganda isn’t even interesting
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 2, 2023
He also claimed that the New York Times' Twitter profile does not fulfill its function. He explained that it is nothing more than "diarrhea" and that they would have "far more real followers" if they used a different strategy:
Also, their feed is the Twitter equivalent of diarrhea. It’s unreadable.
They would have far more real followers if they only posted their top articles.
Same applies to all publications.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 2, 2023
Hours later, Musk brought up the subject again. He did so in response to a user who reported that the main account of The New York Times had lost its badge. Faced with this, the businessman confirmed that it was true and that Twitter had taken it away for being "hypocritical":
NY Times is being incredible hypocritical here, as they are super aggressive about forcing everyone to pay *their* subscription
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 2, 2023
Despite Musk's threat, the remaining accounts that have not paid their verification, AP claims, still have their check mark displayed. The same applies to the secondary accounts of the newspaper that lost that benefit. They still have their check marks.
