Elon Musk calls NPR ‘state-controlled’ media; tweet sparks backlash
Twitter CEO Elon Musk targeted NPR online, likening the news outlet with state-controlled media, similar to “Russia Today,” or “Xinhua” in China.
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In a Tuesday night move, Twitter designated NPR’s main account as “state-affiliated media” – leading to an outcry over how the label undermines the independent news outlet.
It was not immediately clear why Twitter added the “state-affiliated media” to NPR’s account. NPR spokesperson Isabel Lara said the company was not warned, noting that “it happened quite suddenly (Tuesday) night.”
On Wednesday, NPR maintained that the nonprofit media company operates independently of the U.S. government, and NPR CEO John Lansing called Twitter’s move “unacceptable.”
“NPR stands for freedom of speech and holding the powerful accountable. It is unacceptable for Twitter to label us this way. A vigorous, vibrant free press is essential to the health of our democracy,” Lansing said.
According to the news outlet, NPR officials have asked Twitter to remove the label. The “state-affiliated media” tag was still on the news organization’s main account Thursday morning.
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Twitter’s state-affiliated media guidelines
NPR receives government funding through grants from federal agencies and departments. But it accounts for less than 1% of NPR’s annual operating budget, the company said.
The Corporation for Public Broadcasting similarly receives federal funding, but was not given the “state-affiliated media” on its Twitter account as of Thursday morning.
Until Wednesday, the Twitter guidelines said that “state-financed media organizations with editorial independence, like the BBC in the UK or NPR in the United States, are not defined as state-affiliated media for the purposes of this policy.”
NPR has now been removed from that sentence on Twitter’s website. However, as of Thursday morning, there was still one page on the platform’s site that still listed NPR as an editorial independent outlet that is not defined as state-affiliated media.
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In a Wednesday tweet, Twitter owner Elon Musk shared an image with some of Twitter’s guidelines for defining state-affiliated media: “State-affiliated media is defined as outlets where the state exercises control over editorial content through financial resources, direct or indirect political pressures, and/or control over production and distribution.”
“Seems accurate,” Musk wrote, in a reply to the news about Twitter’s designation for the NPR account.
USA TODAY reached out to Twitter for a statement on Thursday. The press account replied with a poop emoji.
‘A dangerous move’
In contrast, others expressed concerns over how NPR’s “state-affiliated media” designation could undermine the independent news organization – with NPR reporting that the same label is given to “official state mouthpieces and propaganda outlets in countries such as Russia and China.”
“NPR is absolutely not even comparable to propaganda outlets like RT & Sputnik, which have no editorial independence,” Caroline Orr Bueno, a behavioral scientist studying disinformation at the University of Maryland, said in a Wednesday tweet. “This is ridiculous and only helps actual propaganda outlets blend in with legitimate news outlets.”
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In calling for Twitter to reverse the move, literary organization PEN America underlined that NPR “assiduously maintains editorial independence.”
Liz Woolery, PEN America’s digital policy leader, told The Associated Press that Twitter’s decision was “a dangerous move that could further undermine public confidence in reliable news sources.”
Just days before Twitter gave NPR the “state-affiliated media” label, the social media platform stripped The New York Times of its verification check mark.
Contributing: The Associated Press.
