Discussion

• @drewharwell@mastodon.social Drew Harwell on mastodon

  New report from the bad place: Twitter removed @nytimes' verified badge after Elon Musk saw a meme that said they won't pay for Twitter Blue.  Latest chapter in his long grudge against the people who report on him. …

• @elonmusk Elon Musk on x

  The real tragedy of @NYTimes is that their propaganda isn't even interesting

• @elonmusk Elon Musk on x

  @cb_doge Oh ok, we'll take it off then

• @mattbinder Matt Binder on x

  Elon Musk quickly deleted a tweet saying legacy verified accounts would not lose their checkmarks on April 1 as he previously said, won't happen for another “few weeks” however, if they specifically say they won't pay for Twitter Blue, then Twitter will remove their checkmark htt…

• @cb_doge @cb_doge on x

  @elonmusk New York Times says It Won't Pay For Twitter Verification 🤣 https://twitter.com/...

• @elonmusk Elon Musk on x

  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.

• @mattbinder Matt Binder on x

  one legacy verified user did just lose their checkmark in a reply to Elon's deleted tweet, a user showed him that the New York Times said it wouldn't pay for Twitter Blue so Elon had the gold checkmark that was previously on the @nytimes account removed https://twitter.com/... ht…

• @washingtonpost @washingtonpost on x

  Twitter removed the “verified” badge from the New York Times' main account on Sunday, a move that billionaire owner Elon Musk pushed for overnight after learning that the news organization would not pay for its Twitter Blue service. https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ...

• @nicoleperlroth Nicole Perlroth on x

  When you remove one verified account (@nytimes) out of pure vindictiveness, but have no uniform policy or plan. https://twitter.com/...

• @mattyglesias Matthew Yglesias on x

  A functional verification system would be a feature for the benefit of twitter users, especially new ones, who might find the platform less confusing that way — conceiving of it as a service for the verified is confused.

• @oliverdarcy Oliver Darcy on x

  Musk has stripped The NYT if it's badge after the outlet said it would not pay him for it. https://twitter.com/...

• @isabelledotjpeg @isabelledotjpeg on x

  ELON TRIED TO HIDE WHO IS SUBSCRIBED TO TWITTER BLUE, BUT I CAN STILL SEE IT WITH THE NERD EMOJI SCRIPT https://twitter.com/...

• @drewharwell Drew Harwell on x

  New: Twitter removed @nytimes' verified badge after @elonmusk saw a meme that said they won't pay for Twitter Blue. Latest chapter in his long grudge against the people who report on him. The Times tells me this morning they're still not planning to pay https://www.washingtonpost…

• @wongmjane Jane Manchun Wong on x

  The New York Times (@nytimes) has become unverified The verification checkmark is gone https://twitter.com/... https://twitter.com/...

• @kenroth Kenneth Roth on x

  Elon Musk retaliates against the @NYTimes for tis refusal to pay to play by removing its blue check verification. Now will he start downgrading its content, filling the “For you” feed with whatever crackpots are willing to fork over his monthly fee? https://www.washingtonpost.com…

• @genepark Gene Park on x

  it's funny because the NYT has exponentially more paying subscribers than twitter https://twitter.com/... https://twitter.com/...

• @ruthbenghiat Ruth Ben-Ghiat on x

  @elonmusk so I guess Nazis like Andrew Anglin who you are replatforming are more “interesting” to you and more useful than the NYT to your goal of making Twitter into a site of far-right radicalization. https://twitter.com/...

• @notabigjerk Lauren on x

  everything about paying for checkmarks aside, this has all gotten so messy https://twitter.com/...

• @loudmouthjulia Julia Alexander on x

  Clearly this is a mistake, which just further proves how messy and uncoordinated this checkmark removal process is, but wild to see the 24th most followed Twitter account lose its organization verification - not even standard verification - before other verification statuses. htt…

• @mollyjongfast Molly Jong-Fast on x

  Not everything can be the Santa Monica observer https://twitter.com/...

• @donmoyn Don Moynihan on x

  The point, again and again, is that one of the most important social media sites is run according to the whims of an incredibly petty person https://twitter.com/...

• @wilson__valdez @wilson__valdez on x

  Again, the old Twitter system had some established (imperfect) guidelines that were supposed to be upheld. The new Twitter is literally one man raging at his enemies and making decisions on a whim. There is not any universe where this is a less ‘biased’ system. https://twitter.co…

• @robtornoe Rob Tornoe on x

  The New York Times is no longer verified on Twitter because they refuse to pay. It's the first big step in stripping away the true value of this social media platform - trusting and knowing something is real without having to spend time investigating. https://twitter.com/... http…

• @mmasnick@mastodon.social Mike Masnick on mastodon

  Just in case someone claims that Elon doesn't know about the change in language on verified users, or approve of it...  But, kinda telling that Elon and his buddies here are effectively admitting they know that people who pay are getting just wildly dunked on.

• @mmasnick@mastodon.social Mike Masnick on mastodon

  So, as @chancerydaily points out, legacy blue checks who don't want the blue checks are currently stuck with the blue checks and Musk is implying they may be paying. …

• @lauren@mastodon.laurenweinstein.org Lauren Weinstein on mastodon

  My theory is that Elon will collect together all of those legacy blue checkmarks he claims he's going to take away from users, store them in a warehouse somewhere in Texas, then try sell them all on eBay.

• @mmasnick@mastodon.social Mike Masnick on mastodon

  So, uh, not pleased that Elon is now implying I might be a gullible sucker who would pay him his monthly “I'm a gullible sucker” fee.  Dude should just take away our legacy blue checks like he promised.

• @robdenbleyker Rob DenBleyker on x

  “this person is either the real Taylor Swift or someone who has $8 there's no way to be certain” https://twitter.com/...

• @oalexanderdk Oliver Alexander on x

  I think they expected more legacy Verified accounts to jump to Blue to keep their checkmark, but only a tiny amount of accounts seemed to care. Twitter knows that if all the legacy Verified people lost their mark some of the value of Blue disappears. https://github.com/...

• @hankgreen Hank Green on x

  https://twitter.com/...

• @chrismessina Chris Messina on x

  Apple constantly advertises on Twitter yet has “never tweeted”. They're also a verified organization. @elonmusk, how do I get my tweets in front of everyone without tweeting? Is this a Twitter Blue benefit? Reach without accountability? Because this is a lie: https://twitter.com/…

• @nirmaltv @nirmaltv on x

  Looks like Elon played it safe, both legacy and Twitter Blue get the same “Blue tick” 😁😁

• @oalexanderdk Oliver Alexander on x

  Instead of removing all legacy verification check marks yesterday like Elon promised, it seems that Twitter just decided to change the description to this. I'm sure this has nothing to do with the fact that only ~3.6% of legacy Verified account subscribing to Blue. https://twitte…

• @kevinokeefe Kevin O'Keefe on x

  Twitter's removing the blue check unless you pay is unlikely to have major ramifications. Only impact could be one's posts not being as visible in others' feeds - though I have not seen that having an impact with the check. Here's the @nytimes' take. https://www.nytimes.com/... h…

• @wongmjane Jane Manchun Wong on x

  well it seems the “legacy verified” and “twitter blue verified” values remain intact on their servers Here showing my custom tweet embed implementation, which treats “legacy verified” and “Twitter Blue verified” as their own statuses and displays them separately https://twitter.c…

• @samuelaadams Sam Adams on x

  they haven't taken away verified checks but they have removed the ability to distinguish between them and people who pay for Twitter https://twitter.com/...

• @getwired Wesley Miller on x

  GitHub - wseagar/eight-dollars: A browser extension that shows twitter blue vs real verified users https://github.com/...

• @racheltobac Rachel Tobac on x

  So far, a couple options still work to check if an account is legacy verified vs a paid subscription: 1. Search: filter:blue_verified -filter:verified from:usernamegoeshere If tweets show up, it's a paid subscription account. 2. Some extensions work to show paid vs legacy status

• @cwarzel Charlie Warzel on x

  i'm actually not sure somebody could run a company worse or more embarrassingly than this if they were trying to. truly hilarious stuff. https://twitter.com/...

• @hasanthehun @hasanthehun on x

  they straight up realized the only value of twitter blue is duping people into thinking it's a legacy checkmark, AFTER elon said he was eliminating legacy blue checkmarks. elon is so fucking dumb lmao https://twitter.com/...

• @mc_of_a Michael Caley on x

  they've realized the most valuable service they can provide to twitter blue subscribers is hiding the shame of having subscribed to twitter blue https://twitter.com/...

• @Green_Footballs@mastodon.social Charles Johnson on mastodon

  Look at this inept BS.  —  In the web version of Twitter, clicking my badge says what it has since Musk took over.  —  But in the mobile version, he's trying to make it impossible to tell if someone paid him for this crap.

• @jeffjarvis@mastodon.social Jeff Jarvis on mastodon

  But I don't want the Blue checkmark of the #EightBuckSchmuck.  I don't want people to think I'm stupid enough to pay Elon.  I've been defamed.

• @oneunderscore__ Ben Collins on x

  Just... lol. https://twitter.com/...

• @benjamingoggin Ben Goggin on x

  Is this just a strategy to make it seem like more people paid for Twitter Blue? This puts people who said they wouldn't pay in a weird place. Twitter is intentially creating doubt about whether a person is paying for verification or not. https://twitter.com/...

• @bigblackjacobin Edward Ongweso Jr on x

  lmfao this is such a funny outcome i don't think anyone anticipated it https://twitter.com/...

• @drewharwell Drew Harwell on x

  @nytimes @elonmusk .@elonmusk had said old checkmarks would disappear as of yesterday but @nytimes is one of the very few affected so far, possibly because the badges have to be removed one by one. Since Musk bought Twitter for $44 billion, its ad revenue has plunged 90% https://…

• @evacide Eva on x

  What fuckery is this? Clicking on the blue check now reads “this account is verified because it is subscribed to Twitter Blue or is a legacy account.” https://twitter.com/...

• @evansverse @evansverse on x

  They have to remove legacy check marks one by one https://twitter.com/... https://twitter.com/...

• @benjamingoggin Ben Goggin on x

  Sooooo basically nothing changed from before? https://twitter.com/...

• @brianjayjones Brian Jay Jones on x

  Interesting. Meanwhile, a lot of checks will be putting “I DIDN'T PAY FOR TWITTER” in their Twitter bios until this gets resolved. https://twitter.com/...

• @hkesvani @hkesvani on x

  Really funny that this is the result of Elon needing to protect the losers that support him so much that he financially cannot act out his revenge fantasies https://twitter.com/...

• @kalhanr Kalhan on x

  Well, I don't pay for Twitter Blue but now when you click my badge (and other legacy badges), the pop-up says it's because the user is either subbed to Twitter Blue OR a legacy account. 🤔 https://twitter.com/...

• @hkesvani @hkesvani on x

  Anyway look, it's really easy to tell who paid for twitter and who didn't!

• @rmac18 Ryan Mac on x

  “or” https://twitter.com/...

• @larrymadowo Larry Madowo on x

  I still have a ‘legacy’ blue check - for now - because someone has to manually remove it https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ...

• @samifathi_ Sami Fathi on x

  Twitter seems to have changed its mind and will no longer strip “legacy” verified accounts of their blue check mark if they don't pay for Twitter Blue, at least according to Musk's deletion of one of his tweets from several weeks ago. https://twitter.com/... https://twitter.com/.…

• @kalhanr Kalhan on x

  Interesting the NYT is the only one to lose verification when some celebs said they wouldn't pay either https://twitter.com/... https://twitter.com/...

• @ericmgarcia Eric Michael Garcia on x

  In a deleted tweet from early Sunday morning, Musk had said Twitter would give verified accounts “a few weeks grace, unless they tell they won't pay now, in which we will remove it.” https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ...

• @carnage4life Dare Obasanjo on x

  The biggest celebrities in the world are making content for you for free in exchange for a few blue pixels beside their username and then you decide to throw that away for $8/month. This is stable genius territory. https://twitter.com/...

• @tomaxwell Thomas Maxwell on x

  It's been reported that removing legacy bluechecks requires lots of manual work and Twitter's software for doing so is incredibly error-prone https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ... But slowing the process is a choice by Elon, apparently https://twitter.com/...

• @nathanchubbard Nathan Hubbard on x

  1) As someone who was (briefly) in charge of the Twitter Media team - the group tasked with getting high profile people onto Twitter, and verification - AND as one of the few ever to voluntarily give up the blue check, I want to try to articulate how risky this policy change is. …

• @kingjames LeBron James on x

  Welp guess my blue ✔️ will be gone soon cause if you know me I ain't paying the 5. 🤷🏾‍♂️

• @wolven @wolven on x

  When the guy who used to run *ticketmaster* tells you you're about to piss a lot of people off and possibly ruin your corporation's public standing, maybe heed that. https://twitter.com/...

• @brianklaas Brian Klaas on x

  The Secret Genius has found a way to make it incredibly, incredibly uncool to be verified on this site. https://twitter.com/...

• @imincorrigible @imincorrigible on x

  Cool kids don't pay for blue ticks. https://twitter.com/...

• @sunnymegatron @sunnymegatron on x

  Bye bye blue check! Supposedly you'll be gone at midnight. I've been verified since 2014ish & it's been nice—helpful in my business too in a number of ways. But now I'm expected to pay to keep it?! NOPE. https://techcrunch.com/...

• @dbfulton @dbfulton on x

  “Elon Musk's Twitter fundamentally misunderstands what made Twitter useful in the first place.” “Allowing users to buy these features makes them useless or even counterproductive.” https://www.eff.org/...

• @jasamgurlie @jasamgurlie on x

  It's a “Martin” reference.... And the whole point of verification is to make sure public figures that post are really who is posting. Overtime people turned it into a weird status symbol. I don't care many millions I got, why would I pay for something specifically used for free? …

• @mikeelgan Mike Elgan on x

  Question of the moment: “ What is the point of Elon Musk's Twitter?” https://www.eff.org/...

• @dionnewarwick Dionne Warwick on x

  I am not paying for a blue check. That money could (and will) be going towards my extra hot lattes. 😒

• @alexblechman Alex Blechman on x

  Imagine how much it would cost to hire LeBron James to write content for your website. Imagine miraculously getting him to do it for free. Imagine then driving him away from your website so you can fail to collect $96 from him annually https://twitter.com/...

• @kyleynfl Kyle Yates on x

  I've enjoyed my checkmark that I was given through the application process, but in no world will I be paying for it. Twitter's about to become an absolute mess, so - legitimately - what other platform are we needing to move to? https://twitter.com/...

• @flglmn @flglmn on x

  incredible to have handled this so badly that celebrities, or their teams, are going out of their way to post about how they won't buy your product, on your product, in order to make themselves look cool to the other users of your product https://twitter.com/...

• @taylorrooks Taylor Rooks on x

  Players always say Lebron doesn't even pay for data roaming and will wait forever to get to a place with wifi because he refuses to do that extra cost....so this definitely tracks 😂 https://twitter.com/...

• @patrickmahomes Patrick Mahomes II on x

  Can't bro i got kids... https://twitter.com/...

• @cantguardmike Michael Thomas on x

  Don't nobody want that raggedy blue check no way anymore 😂

• @bigplay24slay Darius Slay on x

  They can have my blue check 😂😂 fans might tag the wrong name now when someone catch a ball on me!!😂

• @scottnover Scott Nover on x

  I like that every major decision that Musk makes involves a different celebrity boss level. First Stephen King and now William Shatner. https://twitter.com/...

• @berber_jin1 Berber Jin on x

  our profile on sam altman, who fears the dystopian potential of AI but has done more than anyone else to develop it on the way, he fended off elon musk, who called a young researcher a “jackass” at an all-hands before leaving OpenAI w/ @keachhagey https://www.wsj.com/...

• @ijasonalexander Jason Alexander on x

  Friends, there are bigger issues in the 🌎than the blue verified ✔️next to my name on this account. But without it, anyone can allege to be me. So, if I lose that ✔️ know I will leave this platform. Anyone appearing with it=an imposter. I tell you this while I'm still official.

• @rob_sheridan Rob Sheridan on x

  Say what you will about Elon, but it is truly impressive to be so uncool to your very core that despite every potential resource on the planet at your disposal you still make a service so spectacularly lame that guys who make 50 mil a year will make a point not to give you $8 htt…

• @benjysarlin Benjy Sarlin on x

  Much more importantly, the $8 version won't actually tell you if that Kardashian is the real one. She'd have to register the family business for $1k/month and each member for $50/month to get some kind of distinctive marker. https://twitter.com/...

• @danprimack Dan Primack on x

  This is avoidable, but Elon/Twitter just don't want to do the work. And it will backfire in entirely predictable ways, including on Twitter's value. https://twitter.com/...

• @mikeisaac Rat King on x

  i imagine more celebrities are going to be asking this when historical verified goes away — especially when all it will cost is eight bucks and a photo from google images to like impersonate Beyoncé for an hour hope Elon didn't fire his celebrity management division... https://tw…

• @mikeisaac Rat King on x

  already happening imo it is a fundamental misunderstanding of the value proposition— famous (and “famous") people provide more value to twitter just by being there because that is why people like you and me come to the service to read them not worth charging a kardashian 8 bux! h…