While NPR has indicated that it is mainly financed by advertising, sponsorship and contributions from listeners and for a small part by federal sources, Elon Musk’s social network now describes it as a “government-funded” body.
Twitter backed down from branding US public radio NPR as a US ‘state-affiliated media’ after the station’s protests, but Elon Musk’s social network now calls it a ‘government-funded’ body .
The social network, bought last October by Elon Musk, has also applied this new label to the BBC, which is financed mainly by British households paying a license fee.
On Tuesday, Twitter had attached to the account of NPR (National Public Radio) the mention of media “affiliated with the State”, giving it the same label as the media held by the Chinese or Russian governments. On her account, which has more than 8.8 million subscribers, NPR had invited her listeners to “find her wherever you can consult information”.
A discreet change
NPR said it was funded primarily by advertising, sponsorship and listener contributions and a small amount by federal sources.
The other radio accounts (covering political or musical news, for example) had not received this mention from Twitter and continued to tweet.
Over the weekend, Twitter, which at the instigation of Elon Musk is in the midst of redefining the certification of accounts on the social network, quietly relabeled NPR and the BBC for those of establishment ” funded by a government.
The episode comes days after Twitter stripped the New York Times of the official certification of his account, Elon Musk accusing the big daily, deemed rather progressive, of “propaganda”.
