NPR abandons Twitter after being dubbed ‘government-funded media’
American news agency National Public Radio said Wednesday it would stop posting its news updates to its 52 official Twitter accounts in protest at the social media platform’s description of the organisation as “government-funded media.”
Elon Musk’s social media network initially referred to NPR as “state-affiliated media,” the same moniker it uses to describe propaganda sources in China, Russia, and other dictatorial nations.
Twitter then changed its tagline to “government-funded media,” but NPR argued that this was still inaccurate given that NPR is a privately-owned nonprofit media outlet with editorial independence.
According to NPR, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, supported by the U.S. government, contributes less than one per cent of its $300 million yearly budget.
NPR CEO John Lansing explained that the network is safeguarding its reputation by not sharing its news items on Twitter and will continue to deliver journalism “without a shadow of negativity.”
“It would be a disservice to the serious work you all do here to continue to share it on a platform that associates the federal charter for public media with the abandonment of editorial independence or standards,” said Mr Lansing explained the decision in an email to staff.
He stated that even if Twitter dropped any description of NPR, the network would not return to the platform immediately.
“At this point, I have lost my faith in the decision-making at Twitter,” the CEO said in an article posted by NPR. “I would need some time to understand whether Twitter can be trusted again.”
The BBC in Britain and Voice of America, government-funded but independent news organisations, have both been referred to on Twitter as “government-funded media,” a term used to refer to state-controlled propaganda sources.
The VOA stated that the microblogging platform’s description of its outlet gave the impression that it was not independent, but it has not stopped using Twitter.
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