'Feed Equivalent Of Diarrhea': Musk Attacks New York Times As Publication Refuses To Pay For Twitter Verification Badge

The New York Times on Sunday lost its verification tick on Twitter just a week after Musk announced doing away with the legacy accounts.

Musk said The New York Times' Twitter feed is "unreadable." ( Image Source :Getty, Twitter )

Within a week of Twitter CEO Elon Musk declaring the microblogging platform's new policy for letting users retain verification badges after paying a monthly fee, notable news organisation The New York Times lost its gold-verification badge on Sunday. The publication was among several other news organisations, companies, and charities that already lost their legacy blue verification badge, after refusing to pay a monthly fee to retain verification badges. They were earlier tagged as business accounts with a gold-verification badge under Musk's new system.

While launching an attack on The New York Times in a thread of tweets, Musk said, "Their feed is the Twitter equivalent of diarrhoea. It’s unreadable. They would have far more real followers if they only posted their top articles. Same applies to all publications."

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

In October last year, Musk took over Twitter in a hostile $44-billion bid and announced several measures to cut unwanted costs and bolster revenue. As a part of Twitter's new changes, the Twitter Blue subscription was revamped and monetised. Under the new plans, users will need to pay a monthly fee to earn or retain their blue tick verification badges, which were earlier provided for free after a round of vetting by Twitter on the genuineness of a profile. 

Last week, Musk announced that starting April 1 this year, Twitter will be winding down its "legacy" blue-verification badges, which means users who haven't paid yet will lose their blue ticks soon. Additionally, organisations will have to pay a monthly charge of $1,000 in the United States and $50 for each additional affiliated account to retain the gold tick (which is used to denote organisational accounts). In India, organisations will be charged Rs 82,300 per month, and Rs 4,120 additionally per month for affiliated seats.

The New York Times reportedly said it would not pay for a verified business account and will only subscribe for a blue tick if it is necessary for journalists' reporting requirements.

With roughly 55 million followers as of Sunday, the company's main account (@nytimes) lost its gold checkmark, while affiliate accounts, such as those for its travel and tech sections, still retained the ticks at the time of writing.

NBA star LeBron James and even the White House are among the celebrities and organisations that said they will not pay for Twitter Blue but have still retained their blue or gold checkmarks. These might get removed soon. 

ABP Live could verify that not all non-paying legacy users have lost their verification ticks yet. It isn't sure when the blue ticks will remain visible on the accounts. 

Travis Brown, a Berlin-based software developer who monitors social media networks, claims that just a small number of accounts have been unverified, suspended, or had profile elements deleted since Saturday.

A recent increase in the number of accounts switching from the legacy to the new system, he claimed, totalled about 60,000 in the previous week, although most of them were "mostly small accounts, and very few had legacy verification."