Factbox-Broadcasters go silent on Twitter after ‘government funded’ label

(Reuters) – Public broadcasters from U.S. National Public Radio to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation have stopped posting on Twitter in recent days after the Elon Musk-owned social media platform labeled their accounts as “government funded.”

Broadcasters have said the label does not accurately reflect their governance structure, as there is a clear difference between those that receive public funding but are editorially independent and those that are run by governments.

Musk, meanwhile, said Twitter’s goal was to be as “truthful and accurate as possible.”

Here is a list of broadcasters and other media outlets that have stopped using Twitter:

** National Public Radio (NPR)

Last week, NPR announced that it would no longer post new content on its 52 official Twitter feeds, in protest of a label on the social media platform that implies government involvement in its editorial content.

** Société Radio-Canada (SRC)

CBC announced Monday that it would suspend its use of Twitter after the platform called it a “69 per cent government-funded media outlet.”

The CBC account’s Twitter label previously read “70% government funded media,” but was changed to the current label after the CBC asked Twitter to reconsider the designation.

**Public Broadcasting Service (PBS)

PBS, which has about 2.2 million Twitter followers, stopped posting on Twitter after being labeled a “government-funded media outlet,” according to media reports.

**Hawaii Public Radio

Hawaii Public Radio, an NPR member station, announced it would stop sharing its content on Twitter after the microblogging site labeled NPR’s Twitter account a “government-funded media outlet.”

NPR member stations pay the broadcaster a fee to use its programming and content.

** LIST

LAist, a Los Angeles-based media outlet, said it would no longer post on its Twitter accounts in favor of NPR.

(Reporting by Tiyashi Datta, Chavi Mehta and Jaspreet Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Shilpi Majumdar)