On Monday, Elon Musk addressed the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s (CBC) announcement that it would suspend its activities on Twitter following its designation as “government-funded media.”
Musk took to Twitter to respond to CBC’s concerns, stating, “Canadian Broadcasting Corp said they’re ‘less than 70 percent government-funded, so we corrected the label.”
Leon Mar, a spokesperson for CBC, expressed the organization’s unease about the label, saying, “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 allow our independence to be falsely described in this way.”
He continued by announcing, “Consequently, we will be pausing our activity on our corporate Twitter account and all CBC and Radio-Canada news-related accounts.” CBC further asserted on Twitter, “Our journalism is impartial and independent. To suggest otherwise is untrue. That is why we are pausing our activities on @Twitter.”
This situation follows similar labeling of the BBC and NPR as “government-funded media” organizations. The BBC account, boasting 2.2 million followers, currently bears this label, while its other accounts, such as BBC News (World) and BBC Breaking News, have not received the same designation, according to CNN. Twitter has yet to clarify its criteria for categorizing “government-funded media.” In a statement to CNN, the BBC confirmed, “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 the licence fee.”
This situation with the BBC follows a dispute between Musk and NPR, where NPR’s label was changed to “state-affiliated media.” This alteration suggested that the U.S. government might influence NPR’s editorial decisions, drawing comparisons to outlets such as the Kremlin-funded Russia Today.
In reaction to its new label, NPR announced its decision to withdraw entirely from Twitter, as reported by the New York Times. Isabel Lara, NPR’s chief communications officer, remarked, “NPR’s organisational accounts will no longer be active on Twitter because the platform is taking actions that undermine our credibility by falsely implying that we are not editorially independent.” She added, “We are not putting our journalism on platforms that have demonstrated an interest in undermining our credibility and the public’s understanding of our editorial independence.”
