Twitter sparks fresh row with ‘government-funded media’ labels on BBC, NPR accounts

“What does BBC stand for again? I keep forgetting,” Twitter CEO Elon Musk tweeted on Monday after an uproar over the social media platform’s decision to label the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) as a “government-funded media” organisation. The UK-based broadcaster has reached out to Twitter for clarification.

The @BBC account has 2.2 million followers.

“We need to add more granularity to editorial influence, as it varies greatly. I don’t actually think the BBC is as biased as some other government-funded media, but it is silly of the BBC to claim zero influence,” the Twitter CEO posted.

“Minor government influence in their case would be accurate,” he added.

“We are speaking to Twitter to resolve this issue as soon as possible. The BBC is, and always has been, independent. We are funded by the British public through the licence fee,” the BBC said.

Twitter has not issued labels to other BBC accounts such as BBC News (World) and BBC Breaking News.According to the Twitter website, “state-affiliated media” is defined as outlets where the state exercises control over editorial content through financial resources, direct or indirect political pressure, and/or control over production and distribution.

Musk’s social media network has also applied a similar label to the US radio network NPR. It was marked as “state- affiliated media” and later changed to “government-funded”.

The change occurred after the network complained that the term “state-affiliated” was disparaging and inaccurate.

In protest, NPR stopped tweeting. In its updated Twitter bio, NPR’s main account, which has more than 8.8 million followers, invited users to “find us every other place where you read the news”.

“NPR is an independent news organization committed to informing the public about the world around us,” it says.

The microblogging platform’s move against NPR and BBC came just days after it stripped The New York Times, which Musk has accused of being biased, of its verified status. The Times later said that it would not pay a monthly fee to get a verified check mark on Twitter.

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