All verified accounts on Twitter are going to lose their verification starting April 1. From this point on, the blue tick subscription model is the only route to verification. Several major media outlets including New York Times, Politico, and LA Times are rejecting the new move.
Blue tick subscription: The only route to Twitter verification
Starting April 1, Twitter is putting an end to its system of account verification. The blue tick is only available to users who pay the $8 monthly fee. In addition to removing verification from previously authenticated accounts, the new system brings several additional problems. Instead of serving as a direct form of publicly visible verification, Elon Musk is viewing the blue ticks as a status symbol and charging for them.
Musk believed the removal of verification from “legacy accounts: can convince account holders to sign up for the subscription. However, several major US news outlets revealed they will not be budging to the new policy this week. “We aren’t planning to pay the monthly fee for verification of our institutional Twitter accounts. We aren’t planning to pay the monthly fee for verification of our institutional Twitter accounts,” stated the New York Times to Oliver Darcy. The sole exception will be “rare instances where the verified status would be essential for reporting purposes.”
More on the media outlets’ approach
A spokesperson for The Washington Post revealed they are refusing to subscribe “as an institution or on behalf of our journalists. However, it’s evident that verified checkmarks no longer represent authority and expertise.” “As an organization, we will not cover fees for individuals to keep their blue checkmarks moving forward. There are several reasons for this, but one outweighs them all: a blue checkmark no longer means the handle is ‘verified,” stated Buzzfeed.
“First of all, verification no longer establishes authority or credibility. Instead, it only means that someone has paid for a Twitter Blue subscription. Secondly, while Twitter remains an important tool for newsgathering, it is not as reliable as it once was. We will not be paying to verify our organization on Twitter either. It’s still unclear if there’s actual value in doing so, beyond identifying all of us as LA Times staffers,” revealed a LA Times spokesperson.