Twitter removed labels describing news organisations as government-funded or state-affiliated after weeks of sparring between them and the site’s billionaire owner Elon Musk.
These labels that had been added to accounts — including the British Broadcasting Corp., National Public Radio and the Public Broadcasting Service in the US, the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. as well as accounts affiliated with China state-backed broadcaster CGTN among others — were deleted as of Friday morning.
Musk is changing the way the site identifies users as he works to find ways to profit from verification and labels singling out certain groups, such as large businesses and prominent people. The loss of the state-affiliated media labels coincided with the erasure of Twitter’s legacy blue checks. The checks, which confirmed the identities of notable people, government bodies and journalists, were deleted for most accounts that don’t have an $8 per month Twitter Blue subscription.
Many of the news outlets had complained that the label unfairly implied their journalism was influenced by governments. The BBC protested being described as “government-funded,” arguing it’s funded by individual viewers through a fee, which is set by the government. NPR stopped posting on the site on April 12 in protest over the labels. A few days later, CBC paused its Twitter activity, with a spokesman arguing Twitter’s designation undermined its work.
Musk has tweeted repeatedly about the issue, writing “defund @NPR” and alleging government influence at the BBC.
A CGTN article in 2020 said that the broadcaster along with other Chinese media outlets were being “exceptionally targeted” by the Twitter policy. On Meta Platforms Inc.’s Facebook, CGTN is labeled “China state-controlled media,” while the pages of the BBC, CBC and NPR don’t mention state influence.
A spokesman for CBC said they’re reviewing the latest development and will leave their Twitter accounts on pause before taking any further action. Representatives for the BBC and NPR didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment. CGTN didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment outside of regular business hours. Twitter didn’t meaningfully respond to a request for comment.
© 2023 Bloomberg
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