Source: X removed the main New York Times account's “verified” badge on October 17 without notice; source: X traffic to the NYT is down ~50% since August 2023
The unexplained decision removes the only symbol distinguishing the news organization from impostors and comes amid …
Washington PostDrew Harwell
Context & Ripple Effects
This follows X's earlier removal of the Times' verification badge after the publisher said it would not pay for Blue. The October action makes the account's identity signal less dependable at the same time the platform's role as a referral channel is weakening.
It also follows data indicating sharply lower sharing of Times links among influential X users. Together, the episodes connect account-level trust markers with the distribution mechanics that determine how much audience publishers receive from the platform.
First-order effects
The New York Times loses the platform's primary visual distinction between its main account and potential impostors, without notice or an explained recourse.
A roughly 50% decline in X-referred traffic since August directly reduces the value of X as a distribution source for the Times.
Second-order effects
The combination of weaker account signaling and lower referrals gives the Times a stronger incentive to prioritize channels where identity and distribution rules are more predictable.
Other publishers and prominent accounts must treat X verification as a less reliable trust signal, particularly after X had already allowed subscribers to hide their checkmarks.
Third-order effects
If similar actions extend beyond the Times, platform-controlled verification can shift from a common authenticity layer to a discretionary product and governance lever.
Publishers may further diversify audience acquisition away from platform referrals; the magnitude depends on whether X's traffic decline and link-distribution patterns persist.
The trend: This is one data point in the broader shift from social platforms as neutral publisher-distribution channels toward platforms with more discretionary control over identity and reach.
As if a badge on Twitter matters. It doesn't. Musk is a clown. Twitter is a shit show. The Times should follow NPR out the exits. — https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ...
And now the deadbird site has removed the really-this-is-verified Twitter badge from the Times page there. — https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ... If ever there was a time for the Paper of Record to take a stand — wait, never mind...
This is so embarrassing and with misinformation proliferating on the platform, honestly dangerous. I hope people inside are being vocal about how decisions like this hurt the platform, the business and users.
X is making the misinformation situation worse by removing NYT's verification badge as more impostor accounts proliferate. It's better to have Community Notes on any of the official NYT stories that are factually incorrect or take a false story down that's inciting violence.
Whatever. @meredith_levien laps the management of Twitter/X every days of the week and twice on Sundays: Elon Musk's X removes the New York Times' verification badge https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ...
New: X just removed the gold ‘verified’ badge from @nytimes with no explanation. @elonmusk constantly complains about NYT; other news orgs' badges are untouched. Comes amid a flood of false info related to Israel-Gaza war, some of which Musk has endorsed https://www.washingtonpos…
This is a company that's under active investigation by the FTC for potentially violating its second (!) consent decree in a decade. I know this isn't a data privacy issue but I just simply wouldn't do anything to deceive consumers if I was in Twitter's shoes.
I don't support the NYT, but I don't support Musk's pettiness in arbitrarily removing news designations either. No matter how much he and his sycophants lie, Musk is one of the single greatest threats to free speech and the accurate spread of information right now.
https://theconversation.com/ ... A year ago I wrote a piece in The Conversation predicting that @elonmusk's tyrannical platform changes will bring a flood of misinformation. Here we are...
Another big news item here: Since August, when we reported on X's five-second delay for @nytimes links, traffic from X to NYT has plunged *50%*. Massive drop for X's 25th-biggest account that outpaces industry-wide slide
With Meta and X no longer dependable, publishers have grown more reliant on Google. Google says it sends 24 billion clicks per month, or 9,000 per second, to news publishers' websites through its search engine and associated news page. But even Google is shaky. …
Sigh, the NY Times puts 3 reporters on the news that Big Social is no longer (as if it ever way) journalism's daddy — with editors whimpering at the unfairness of it all. — https://www.nytimes.com/... Of course, the reporters and sources never even consider the possibility tha…
https://www.nytimes.com/... Now is the time for news organizations to make the jump to the Fediverse. Don't tie your fate to big tech whose interests are not your own. Prop up your own servers while you are at it. #journalism #publishing #media
Here is a suggestion. Social Media should still support news articles and reference them prominently, but rewrite their headlines to actually reference the content. Remove clickbait and actually inform. https://www.nytimes.com/...
@semaforben I find it very strange that Elon would want to break up with “the news” in general. I would have thought he would see X as a way to surface the best of it, debunk the worst, criticize, compare, etc. Cutting out external content is to totally contrary to how I would wa…
“People do like having lots of sources of information, but they don't want to be nosing around a postapocalyptic wasteland to find them.” Well put, @semaforben. Silicon Valley Ditches News, Shaking an Unstable Industry: https://www.nytimes.com/...
“Privately, a number of publishers have discussed what a post-Google traffic future may look like, and how to better prepare if Google's A.I. products become more popular and further bury links to news publications.” #MediaRevenue https://www.nytimes.com/...
“Top news sites got about 11.5 percent of their web traffic in the United States from social networks in September 2020, according to Similarweb, a data and analytics company. By September this year, it was down to 6.5 percent.” https://www.nytimes.com/... [image]
Alliance President & CEO Danielle Coffey says, “Owning our own fate is our ultimate goal. Receiving fair market value pursuant to objective and enforceable laws and detaching from the yo-yo would be a very good thing.” Read our timeline on how Meta keeps news publishers spinning.…
If tech really does abandon news, might that present an opportunity for newspapers, or their digital incarnations, to fill the void? https://www.nytimes.com/...
@semaforben And the beginning of a new one in which news publishers work with audiences, advertisers and others to finally free themselves from the addictive trap of web platforms.