We all know that President Trump doesn’t like the New York Times.

Or as he likes to call it, “the FAILING New York Times.”

Well, it appears that he’s not alone.

By the looks of it, Elon musk is not fond of the NYT either.

X, formerly Twitter, has removed the verification badge from the official NYT account.

In other words, the account has essentially been degraded, demoted.

Most recently, the NYT has been accused of running fake news stories that have resulted in “anti-Israel misinformation.”

It is suspected that this may be Musk’s retaliation for the Times appearing to report fake news.

The Washington Post has more details on how it went down:

The social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, has removed the gold “verified” badge from the New York Times’ account amid ongoing complaints about the news organization from X owner Elon Musk.

The badge was the only symbol distinguishing the Times’ 55-million-follower account from impostors amid two major global conflicts in Israel and Ukraine. X has hosted and helped amplify a flood of false information related to the Israel-Gaza war, some of which Musk has personally endorsed.

The badge was removed Tuesday without notice, a person familiar with the change said. The Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, the Associated Press, CNN, Bloomberg, Vox and other news organizations still had their gold badges as of Thursday afternoon. Times accounts related to coverage of world news, health and other subjects still show “verified” badges.

Ever since purchasing Twitter, Musk has been openly critical of the press.

He’s promoted free speech and fought back against organizations that suppress free speech via fake news.

While Musk has not confirmed this is the case, it is the rational conclusion of most observers.

Here’s the interesting part:

It was just the New York Times.

Other left-wing organizations still had their checkmarks.

This led some users online to speculate whether it was in retaliation of a specific piece or a specific angle, such as the apparent anti-Israeli slant of the paper.

The Wrap has more details:

Removing verification made it harder for the more than 55 million followers of the “paper of record” to tell if the account’s posts — from promos for “Wordle” to news about the Israel-Hamas and Russia-Ukraine wars — were real.

And it came at a time when Musk and his platform, along with other social media and news aggregators, are receiving increasing criticism for not policing the misinformation that is flooding the sites.

It’s not completely clear how many, if any, of the accounts on X operated by The Times were similarly defrocked. Its @NYTimesArts and @NYTScience accounts, still had “blue checks,” Thursday afternoon, but others, like @NYTBusiness and @Wirecutter, its consumer news operation, did not.

The gold badge was removed Tuesday without warning, The Washington Post first reported, noting that its own badge, along with the badges for other major news outlets like The Associated Press, Bloomberg News, The Wall Street Journal and CNN remain.

So what do you think?

Do you think Elon Musk’s actions are warranted or unwarranted?

Why or why not?

Let us know in the comments section below!

 

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