The New York Times said it will not pay a monthly fee for the verified mark on institutional Twitter accounts and will not reimburse its reporters for their verified personal Twitter accounts.
Leading U.S. media company The New York Times said it won’t pay fees to get the verified blue tick on Twitter, according to a Reuters report. The microblogging platform previously intimated that verified marks will only be offered to paid subscribers from April 1, following which The New York Times lost its verified Twitter mark on Sunday.
According to Reuters, citing a spokesperson from The New York Times, the U.S. daily will not reimburse its reporters for their verified personal accounts on Twitter. This is barring some rare cases where the verified status would be essential for reporting purposes, it added.
The Twitter handle of The New York Times, which has 55 million followers, last week posted a meme saying it will not pay for Twitter Blue. In response to this Twitter owner Elon Musk tweeted, “Oh ok, we will take it off then”.
Apart from The New York Times, several other prominent media organizations like Politico, The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, and CNN, among others, also made similar announcements. The reason likely being the microblogging site is not as reliable as it used to be and does not represent the same level of authenticity. According to a report by Axios, the White House will also not pay to have its staff’s official Twitter profiles continue to be verified.
Late last month, the Elon Musk-owned social media platform announced it is doing that it would take down the ‘legacy’ blue ticks on April Fool’s Day or April 1. Only users who sign up for Twitter Blue can keep their blue checkmark.
It is noteworthy, that some users still have the access to Twitter verified tick mark despite the April 1 deadline to subscribe to the Blue service. The reason for the same is unclear at the moment but it is speculated that the company is rolling back the services in phases and many other users could see their verified badge removed in the coming days.
Elon Musk, who took over the company last year, criticized the original concept of verified tick marks saying that how they were given out was “corrupt and nonsensical.” Later, Musk came up with a subscription service which is now known as ‘Twitter Blue,’ in an attempt to generate a new revenue stream for the company and “democratize” the micro-blogging platform. Talking about India, the monthly Twitter Blue subscription will cost users Rs 650 for the web and Rs 900 each for Android and iOS devices. Twitter will charge Rs 6,800 for a yearly subscription.
The company last week also rolled out its Verified Organizations feature, which lets organizations verify their affiliations and reach their followers, worldwide. A verified organization will receive a gold checkmark and square avatar if they are a business or non-profit, or a grey checkmark and circular avatar if they are a governmental or multilateral organization.
The base subscription price for Twitter Verified Organizations is Rs 82,300 per month in India. An additional Rs 4,120 a month will have to be paid for every affiliate.
Musk, who is also the head of the American electric car company Tesla, bought Twitter for $44 billion last year. Following Musk’s takeover, the Blue Bird has managed to garner regular headlines about its weakening content moderation policies, a surge in fake accounts, and re-activation of accounts of some controversial celebrities.
