Elon Musk’s X inexplicably removed the gold “verified” badge from The New York Times main account on the social media platform on Tuesday.
The platform just as mysteriously replaced the badge with a “blue check” hours after multiple news outlets reported the disappearance.
“The X platform provided no explanation or information for either move,” New York Times spokesman Charlie Stadtlander said.
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.