What Twitter's 'Government Funded Media' Label Means For NPR, BBC
Twitter and Elon Musk are in the news again--this time for labeling US radio network NPR and UK's national broadcaster...29 Jun 2023 5:30 PM IST
Twitter and Elon Musk are in the news again--this time for labeling US radio network NPR and UK's national broadcaster BBC as "government-funded media". They were earlier tagged as "state-affiliated media". Upset over the development, NPR last week said they would not tweet till the "false label" is removed.
The BBC has also objected to the "government-funded media" tag saying that they are funded by the British public through the license fee .
Why the uproar?
"State-affiliated media" tag is usually reserved for news organisations from China and Russia where the state controls the editorial decisions. Twitter says that accounts belonging to state-affiliated media entities and their prominent staff are labelled. Labeling BBC and NPR would mean that the two organsiations are editorially controlled by the government, a charge which they have refuted.
What did NPR and BBC say?
NPR has said with this label, every tweet sent out from their Twitter handle will go out with a disclaimer saying the content that you see might be "propaganda". It also said Twitter boss Musk is "unclear" about the difference between state-controlled and public media.
BBC too is in talks with Twitter to get the tag removed. In fact, BBC said that in one of their email exchanges with Musk, he said that he relies on BBC more because it is "least biased". Then why the tag, chief twit?
Read more
Twitter and Elon Musk are in the news again--this time for labeling US radio network NPR and UK's national broadcaster BBC as "government-funded media". They were earlier tagged as "state-affiliated media". Upset over the development, NPR last week said they would not tweet till the "false label" is removed.
The BBC has also objected to the "government-funded media" tag saying that they are funded by the British public through the license fee .
Why the uproar?
"State-affiliated media" tag is usually reserved for news organisations from China and Russia where the state controls the editorial decisions. Twitter says that accounts belonging to state-affiliated media entities and their prominent staff are labelled. Labeling BBC and NPR would mean that the two organsiations are editorially controlled by the government, a charge which they have refuted.
What did NPR and BBC say?
NPR has said with this label, every tweet sent out from their Twitter handle will go out with a disclaimer saying the content that you see might be "propaganda". It also said Twitter boss Musk is "unclear" about the difference between state-controlled and public media.
BBC too is in talks with Twitter to get the tag removed. In fact, BBC said that in one of their email exchanges with Musk, he said that he relies on BBC more because it is "least biased". Then why the tag, chief twit?
Read more here.
