News - World: Twitter CEO Elon Musk has denounced the New York Times as “unreadable propaganda” after the newspaper, which is considered an instrument of the US state-approved propaganda, refused to pay for verification.

The Times said on Sunday it will not pay a monthly fee to get verified checkmark status on Twitter, hours after the social media platform began removing its iconic blue checkmarks from accounts that had received the badge before Musk’s subscription system was introduced.

ccording to the new Twitter policy, verified check marks are now offered only through a paid subscription. Organizations will have to pay $1,000 a month to obtain gold check marks, according to Reuters.

"We also will not reimburse reporters for Twitter Blue for personal accounts, except in rare instances where this status would be essential for reporting purposes," the spokesperson added.

The New York Times’ @nytimes account lost its checkmark on Saturday, meaning its tweets will no longer show up in the ‘for you’ tab, the default timeline where Twitter users see content from accounts they follow.

Musk suggested in a tweet on Sunday that the vanishing of Tweets from the Times would be no great loss for most users.

“The real tragedy of @NYTimes is that their propaganda isn’t even interesting,” the billionaire declared. “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,” Musk continued, adding that the “same applies to all publications.”

The Times along with a number of US newspapers and news outlets are boycotting the paid verification system.

American writer and political commentator Stephen Lendman said in an interview with Press TV said the New York Times is "a lying machine, an instrument of state-approved propaganda, notably on geopolitical issues."

"It features US intelligence community press releases — rubbish masquerading as 'all the news that’s fit to print' that’s unfit to read," he added. 

Musk acquired Twitter for $44 billion last October, promising a host of reforms that would roll back the platform’s censorship policies and make it a “digital town square” for free and open debate.

Source: Press TV