NYT Business front mixes up Twitter and Google in check mark story

It’s quite amusing to see a news outlet promote a story about changing “verification” standards for check marks at Twitter by getting the name of the involved company wrong. And we’re not talking Twitter versus its corporate rebrand to “X Corp,” or its sign change that removed its W. We’re talking Twitter versus entirely different company Google (which itself is under parent company Alphabet). On Friday, as per Dow Jones senior reporter Jon Swartz, the print version of The New York Times‘ business front page blamed Google rather than Twitter for the ongoing drama around Twitter check mark removals:

Google can’t catch a break. pic.twitter.com/xAhPj36IIz

— Jon Swartz (@jswartz) April 21, 2023

The check mark removals (for formerly-verified accounts that have chosen not to pay for Twitter Blue) have become a major story across the world, including in sports. On Thursday alone, Rich Eisen learned he’d lost his check mark while live on his radio/TV show. That led to quite the rant from him about Twitter owner Elon Musk: “I’m not paying that man a dime. I think what he has done to the site is an absolute disaster.”

Thursday also saw Musk reveal he was “paying for a few” check marks, perhaps explaining why people like LeBron James who had said they wouldn’t pay still have those marks. And the story, and its wide implications for information accuracy and distribution across Twitter (just one of the many current challenges and changes ongoing at that company), is understandably getting huge coverage from the business press. But most of those headlines and stories have correctly identified this as being about Twitter, rather than Google.

[Jon Swartz on Twitter]