Twitter removes ‘government-funded’ news labels after NPR and other flubs

After weeks of actually silly antics, Twitter has eliminated “government-funded media” labels on all accounts, from NPR to the Chinese state-affiliated Xinhua News. Twitter even seems to have deleted its internet web page explaining the “government-funded media” labels.

This complete saga began when Twitter labeled NPR as “state-affiliated,” a designation that Twitter reserves for publications the place the federal government workout routines affect or management over editorial choices. But NPR receives about 1% of its funding from the federal government and operates with editorial independence. So, Twitter created a brand new “government-funded media” label for NPR, which is a bit much less deceptive, but nonetheless may simply give customers the unsuitable thought concerning the accuracy of its news. NPR ended up leaving Twitter, with its CEO saying he has misplaced his religion within the decision-making at Twitter.

Twitter doubled down, including “government-funded” labels to media shops just like the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), Australian Broadcasting Company (ABC Australia), Australia’s Special Broadcasting Service (SBS), New Zealand’s public broadcaster RNZ, Sweden’s SR Ekot and SVT and Catalonia’s TV3.cat.

In one notably asinine act, Twitter assigned the CBC a “69% government-funded media” label, because the community claimed it was lower than 70% government-funded, and as we very well-know, Twitter proprietor Elon Musk has the identical humorousness as a highschool freshman on Reddit. This prompted the CBC to observe NPR’s lead and depart Twitter altogether.

And now we’ve come full-circle. Just like legacy blue checks, the government-funded media labels have disappeared. So it goes.