Twitter owner Elon Musk is facing new criticism after his social media platform issued labels for several news outlets
Over the weekend, Twitter applied a “Government Funded Media” label to the accounts belonging to NPR, PBS, Voice of America, and the BBC.
NEW 🚨 Twitter has now labelled NPR, BBC, Voice of America and PBS as “Government Funded Media” pic.twitter.com/6FxASrtl6K
— Insider Paper (@TheInsiderPaper) April 9, 2023
In a statement to The Hill, the BBC said, “We are speaking to Twitter to resolve this issue as soon as possible.”
“The BBC is, and always has been, independent,” it added.
The new labels came days after Twitter designated NPR “state-affiliated media.”
Musk faced new criticism for the labels applied to the news outlets.
Christian Christensen, a professor at Stockholm University, tweeted, “Musk labelled [BBC] as ‘Government Funded Media.’ Intention is to blur lines betw. state propaganda like Russia Today [and] European public broadcasters, many of which have in-built safeguards against direct state interference.”
https://twitter.com/ChrChristensen/status/1645432363973853186
Deadline’s Jake Kanter wrote, “Hi [Musk]. The [BBC] is not funded by the UK government. It is funded by the British public through a system known as the licence fee. The BBC’s operations and editorial decision-making are entirely independent of the government”
Hi @elonmusk.
— Jake Kanter (@Jake_Kanter) April 8, 2023
The @BBC is not funded by the UK government.
It is funded by the British public through a system known as the licence fee.
The BBC's operations and editorial decision-making are entirely independent of the government pic.twitter.com/GvMpcSWIMe
Meanwhile, Monica Marks, a professor of Middle East Politics at NYU Abu Dhabi, tweeted, “Elon Musk’s Twitter labels editorially independent NPR & BBC ‘government-funded media,’ violating Twitter’s own definition of that term.”
“Yet it applies no label to editorially state-tethered likes of Turkey’s TRT World, Tunisia’s TAP, Qatar’s Al Jazeera, or UAE’s The National,” she added.
Elon Musk’s Twitter labels editorially independent NPR & BBC “government-funded media,” violating Twitter’s own definition of that term.
— Monica Marks (@MonicaLMarks) April 10, 2023
Yet it applies no label to editorially state-tethered likes of Turkey’s TRT World, Tunisia’s TAP, Qatar’s Al Jazeera, or UAE’s The National. pic.twitter.com/vWE6eHNrIG
Musk appeared to poke fun at the BBC as he wrote in a tweet, “What does BBC stand for again? I keep forgetting.”
Yet in another post, he stated, “I don’t actually think the BBC is as biased as some other government-funded media, but it is silly of the BBC to claim zero influence.”