Twitter is making good on its promise to remove verified status from accounts unless they pay a monthly fee — at least for some.
On Sunday, The New York Times’ main account lost its blue check mark, which verifies the account belongs to the paper.
Twitter’s owner Elon Musk wrote early Monday morning, “The real tragedy of [The New York Times] is that their propaganda isn’t even interesting.”
“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,” he added.
Also, their feed is the Twitter equivalent of diarrhea. It’s unreadable.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 2, 2023
They would have far more real followers if they only posted their top articles.
Same applies to all publications.
In March, the Twitter Verified account wrote, “On April 1st, we will begin winding down our legacy verified program and removing legacy verified checkmarks. To keep your blue check mark on Twitter, individuals can sign up for Twitter Blue.”
It shared a link for organizations to keep their blue check mark as well.
On April 1st, we will begin winding down our legacy verified program and removing legacy verified checkmarks. To keep your blue checkmark on Twitter, individuals can sign up for Twitter Blue here: https://t.co/gzpCcwOpLp
— Verified (@verified) March 23, 2023
Organizations can sign up for https://t.co/RlN5BbuGA3…
Twitter Blue is the company’s subscription plan. Individual users can pay $8 per month to receive a blue check mark and extra features.
For companies, the cost is $1,000 per month.
However, since Saturday, it appears relatively few accounts lost their blue check marks for not paying.
The Washington Post cited data from Travis Brown, a software developer, which showed that only a few dozen accounts saw their verified status removed.
The Times, which has 55 million followers and is Twitter’s 24th most followed account, told The Post it does not plan to “pay the monthly fee for check mark status for our institutional Twitter accounts.”
Along with several other news outlets, the White House reportedly does not plan to pay for Twitter Blue.
The White House will not be paying for Twitter verification under the new system, according to an email obtained by NBC News. @MSNBC
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) April 3, 2023
On Sunday, Musk tweeted and then deleted a promise to give users a “few weeks grace” to pay for verified status.
However, he said the check marks will be removed quickly if users state they will not pay.