After weeks of truly stupid antics, Twitter has removed “government-funded media” labels on all accounts, from NPR to the Chinese state-affiliated Xinhua News. Twitter even appears to have deleted its web page explaining the “government-funded media” labels.
This whole saga started when Twitter labeled NPR as “state-affiliated,” a designation that Twitter reserves for publications where the government exercises influence or control over editorial decisions. But NPR receives about 1% of its funding from the government and operates with editorial independence. So, Twitter created a new “government-funded media” label for NPR, which is a bit less misleading, yet still could easily give users the wrong idea about the accuracy of its news. NPR ended up leaving Twitter, with its CEO saying he has lost his faith in the decision-making at Twitter.
Twitter doubled down, adding “government-funded” labels to media outlets like the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), Australian Broadcasting Company (ABC Australia), Australia’s Special Broadcasting Service (SBS), New Zealand’s public broadcaster RNZ, Swe …
