In Elon Musk’s recent crackdown on legacy blue ticks, many were expecting a sweeping removal of accounts that had it for free. However, it turns out that the crackdown was much ado about nothing, except for one account that was affected: New York Times.
The New York Times Twitter account which has more than 55 million followers was stripped of its gold check of verification in this crackdown. The verification symbol was revoked hours after Twitter’s CEO Elon Musk threatened to strip away the badges from those who don’t pay for company’s paid verification system.
Twitter’s legacy verified program which operated before Musk acquired Twitter last year granted blue tick of verification to “active, notable, and authentic accounts of public interest.” The company was supposed to begin “winding down” the legacy badges starting April 1 but many popular Twitter accounts still have it on their profile. However, when you click on the blue check now, it does not tell you the exact program under which the account has been verified. “This account is verified because it’s subscribed to Twitter Blue or is a legacy verified account.”
The account @nytimes no longer has a gold checkmark on its profile. However it seems that the move has affected only the main account of New York Times as its other associated accounts like the arts, opinions and games sections still has it.
Several popular people and organisations have stated that they refuse to pay the fee for Twitter verification badge. This includes names like Lebron James, Dan Rather, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, The New York Times and more. However, all of these accounts still have their verification badges and only The New York Times seems to have lost it by far.
A twitter user who often tweets at Musk brought it to billionaire’s notice that Times’s has said it won’t pay the verification fee. Musk responded to it with a tweet reading “ok, we’ll take it off then” on Sunday. The Tesla boss earlier the same day had criticised media outlet calling their feed on Twitter equivalent of “diarrhea” adding that their “propaganda isn’t even interesting.”
ALSO READ l Bye bye legacy blue tick: Twitter to remove non-paying verified checkmarks from April 1
