NPR discontinues Twitter use over misleading account label policy
NPR has announced that it will stop posting content on its 52 official Twitter feeds as a sign of protest against the social media platform’s label that implies government involvement in its editorial content. Twitter has refused NPR’s repeated requests to remove the inaccurate label of “state-affiliated media,” now changed to “government-funded media,” which does not accurately reflect NPR’s public media governance structure. The BBC has also raised objections to the latest label, stating that it is misleading.
NPR has stated that if it continued tweeting, every post would carry that misleading label. However, the organization will continue to post on other social media platforms and is reviewing whether to expand to emerging third-party platforms.
In an interview with the BBC, Twitter’s owner, billionaire Elon Musk, said that the company was trying to be accurate and looking into amending the label. Musk stated that the goal of Twitter is to be truthful and accurate, and the label would be changed to “publicly funded,” which he believed was not too objectionable.
Regarding Twitter’s financial situation, Musk stated in the interview that the microblogging platform was “roughly breaking even” as many advertisers who had paused their spending since its takeover last year had returned. However, Twitter did not respond to a request for comment from Reuters.