Elon Musk said he corrected the label.
Washington:
Elon Musk responded to Canada’s public broadcaster on Monday saying he would suspend his activities on Twitter after being called a “government-funded medium”.
Responding to CBC’s threats, Elon Musk tweeted: “Canadian Broadcasting Corp said they were ‘less than 70% government funded so we fixed the label.’
Canadian Broadcasting Corp said they were “less than 70% government funded” so we corrected the label pic.twitter.com/lU1EWf76Zu
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 18, 2023
Earlier, CBC spokesperson Leon Mar said: “Twitter can be a powerful tool for our journalists to communicate with Canadians, but it undermines the accuracy and professionalism of the work they do to enable our independence from being falsely portrayed in this way,” CBC reported. .
“As a result, we will be pausing our activity on our corporate Twitter account and all accounts related to CBC and Radio-Canada news,” he added.
Meanwhile, on Twitter, CBC said: “Our journalism is unbiased and independent. To suggest otherwise is wrong. This is why we are suspending our activities on @Twitter.
Previously, the BBC and NPR were referred to as ‘government funded media’ organisations.
The @BBC account – which has 2.2 million followers – is currently marked as government funded. The label was not assigned to other BBC accounts, including BBC News (World) and BBC Breaking News, CNN reported.
Twitter hasn’t given a definition of what it considers “government-funded media.”
In a statement provided to CNN, the BBC said: “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 licensing fees.
The BBC branding comes after a row broke out between Musk and US network NPR after Musk changed NPR’s label to ‘state-affiliated media’ – which effectively suggested that the US government could influence its editorial policy and compare it to media such as Kremlin-funded Russia. Today.
After being labeled as “government funded,” NPR said it would stop using Twitter altogether, The New York Times reported.
Isabel Lara, NPR’s Director of Communications, said in a statement, “NPR’s organizational accounts will no longer be active on Twitter as the platform takes actions that undermine our credibility by falsely implying that we are not independent on the editorial plan”.
“We do not place our journalism on platforms that have demonstrated an interest in undermining our credibility and public understanding of our editorial independence,” she added.
(Except for the title, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)