The New York Times had the verification badge scrubbed from its main Twitter account early Sunday after a user of the social media platform flagged to Elon Musk that the news outlet had said it would decline to pay the monthly fee to keep it.
“Oh OK, we’ll take it off then,” the Twitter CEO tweeted in response to the user’s comment. Musk later criticized the Times, calling the Pulitzer Prize-winning news organization “propaganda” and equating its Twitter feed to “diarrhea.”
Prior to Musk’s takeover of the site in October, the check marks were given to accounts of notable individuals and businesses in an effort to recognize official accounts and prevent impostors. Twitter said it would begin removing the check marks as of April 1 but that users who paid for the company’s Twitter Blue subscription service could continue to receive the badge.
The Times had said it would not pay for the subscription.
Several other major news outlets, including The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times and CNN, had also said they wouldn’t subscribe. Representatives for The Washington Post, LA Times, and Business Insider said there was no value in the subscriptions, according to Business Insider.
“It’s evident that verified checkmarks no longer represent authority and expertise,” said a representative for the Post, according to CNN.
CNN, the LA Times, The Washington Post and Business Insider all still had check marks as of Sunday morning.
The New York Times reported last week, citing internal documents, that Twitter would allow some users to keep their verification badges without a subscription. These accounts would be Twitter’s top 500 advertisers and the 10,000 most-followed organizations that have been previously verified.
The Times had 54.9 million Twitter followers as of Sunday and was among the top 20 top-followed organizations, according to user tracking sites.
It’s not clear whether the Times is being intentionally excluded or whether these exceptions are not actually in effect.
Twitter laid off its entire press team after Musk’s takeover of the company and last month started responding to any emails from the press with an automatic reply of a poop emoji.
The company responded to JS with the symbol when asked about the decision to remove the Times’ verification badge on Sunday.