Twitter has removed the \”government-funded media\” labels from all accounts, from NPR to the Chinese state-affiliated Xinhua News, after weeks of genuinely idiotic pranks. Even Twitter\’s webpage describing the \”government-funded media\” labelling seems to have been removed.
The whole controversy began when Twitter branded NPR as \”state-affiliated,\” a term it only uses for outlets when the government has editorial control or influence. NPR, however, has editorial freedom and only receives roughly 1% of its financing from the government. NPR now has a new \”government-funded media\” designation on Twitter that is a little less deceptive but still has the potential to mislead users about the veracity of its content. The CEO of NPR ultimately decided to leave Twitter, claiming he no longer had confidence in Twitter\’s decision-making process.
Increasing its offensive, Twitter added \”government-funded\” labels to media organisations like the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC Australia), Australia\’s Special Broadcasting Service (SBS), New Zealand\’s public broadcaster RNZ, Sweden\’s SR Ekot and SVT, and Catalonia\’s TV3.cat.
Since the CBC claimed it received less than 70% of its funding from the government, Twitter labelled the network as having a \”69% government-funded media\” status. As we all know, Twitter owner Elon Musk has the same sense of humour as a high school freshman on Reddit. This forced the CBC to stop using Twitter altogether, following NPR\’s example.
We\’ve completed the circle now. The government-funded media brands have disappeared, just like legacy blue checks. Thus it is.