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Media Organizations Boycotting Twitter Over ‘Government-Funded’ Tags

In recent weeks, Elon Musk鈥檚 Twitter has been labeling accounts belonging to media organizations. These labels provide information on whether a media company is government funded, state-affiliated, or publicly funded. However, many media houses have not taken well to this update with some threatening to quit Twitter altogether.

On April 12th, National Public Radio (NPR) announced that it would no longer post fresh content to its 52 official Twitter feeds. This announcement came after the news organization received a 鈥淕overnment-funded Media鈥� tag.

Just last week, the platform also labeled the BBC as a state-affiliated organization. However, the British broadcaster was quick to push back against the categorization and soon their tag was changed to 鈥淧ublic-funded.鈥�

On April 16 Twitter also put a “government-funded media” label on CBC’s account. Other media organizations that have received 鈥淕overnment-funded鈥� labels include, U.S. public broadcaster PBS and Al Jazeera. However, some organizations such as The Guardian, and CNN are yet to get a label.

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Twitter defines Government-funded media as any media outlet whose some or the entirety of its funding is provided by the government. State-affiliated media, on the other hand, is defined as 鈥渙utlets where the state exercises control over editorial content through financial resources, direct or indirect political pressures, and/or control over production and distribution.鈥�

Publicly-funded media refers to media organizations that receive funding from license fees, individual contributions, public financing, and commercial financing.

Many media houses are against government-funded and state-affiliated labels. NPR’s chief executive said their decision to quit Twitter is in order to protect the brand鈥檚 credibility and its ability to produce journalism without “a shadow of negativity.”