The New York Times has been stripped of its blue verification tick on Twitter after announcing that it would not pay to maintain its verified status.
Twitter recently announced that verification badges, which indicate official, verified accounts, would now only be available to paid subscribers.
Several organisations and celebrities, including The New York Times, refused to pay for the badge.
This decision by The New York Times prompted Elon Musk to publicly insult the newspaper on Twitter.
He tweeted, “The real tragedy of @NYTimes is that their propaganda isn’t even interesting”, Mr Musk, who owns Twitter, wrote on the platform.
“Also, their feed is the Twitter equivalent of diarrhea. It’s unreadable,” he added.
Twitter has not released an official statement on the matter, and The New York Times has not responded to Musk’s comments.
There are concerns that without the verification process, it will be difficult to distinguish genuine accounts from impersonators.
Under Twitter’s new rules, organisations must pay a monthly fee of $1,000 to receive a gold verification tick, while individual accounts must pay $8 a month for a blue one.
The New York Times also announced that it would not pay for the verification of its journalists’ Twitter accounts, except in rare instances where it would be essential for reporting purposes.
The newspaper, which has nearly 55 million Twitter followers, has lost its verification badge as a result of its decision not to pay for the service.