Following the removal of the legacy verified blue tick, Twitter has moved in a sudden move to remove the government-funded media label from the accounts of several news media outlets (Image: Reuters)
Labeled “government-funded media” from accounts by NPR, the BBC and CBC, and also from the accounts of the Chinese state-run daily Global Times and Russia’s Sputnik
Twitter removed the “government-funded” and “China state-affiliated” labels, which imply government involvement, in editorial content from the accounts of various global media organizations, their profiles showed on Friday.
Twitter removed the “government-funded media” label from the accounts of US-based National Public Radio (NPR), the British Broadcasting Corp and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC).
It also removed the “China state-affiliated media” tag on the accounts of journalists affiliated with Xinhua News as well as government-backed publications.
While the accounts of Chinese publishers, including those of their senior employees as well as some prominent government officials, began receiving the label in 2020, the likes of NPR and CBC were labeled as early as this month.
It stopped NPR and CBC posting on their Twitter accounts, arguing that the label did not accurately capture their governance structure.
In a BBC interview last week, the billionaire owner of Twitter Elon Musk Said the social media platform was trying to be “accurate” and was amending the label.
“Our goal is to be as truthful and accurate as possible. We are adjusting the label to ‘publicly funded,’ which I think probably isn’t too objectionable,” Musk had said.
Twitter, NPR, CBC and BBC did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the removal of the tag.
Twitter on Thursday also removed the legacy verified blue tick from the profiles of thousands of people, including celebrities, journalists and prominent politicians like Hillary Clinton.
Those missing the badges include former US President Donald Trump, Microsoft Corp co-founder Bill Gates and reality TV star Kim Kardashian.
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(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed)
