Conservatives applauded Twitter CEO Elon Musk after his social media platform designated National Public Radio as “state-affiliated media”...
Conservatives applauded Twitter CEO Elon Musk after his social media platform designated National Public Radio as “state-affiliated media” on Tuesday.
NPR’s page was given a banner that designates it as “US state-affiliated media.” The left-wing outlet receives grants from a number of federal agencies.
The banner has a link that explains the existence and rationale behind the designation, which is shared by outlets such as Russia’s TASS and China’s Xinhua News.
“Labels on government accounts provide additional context for accounts heavily engaged in geopolitics and diplomacy,” Twitter says of the banners.
“Labels on state-affiliated accounts provide additional context about accounts that are controlled by certain official representatives of governments, state-affiliated media entities and individuals associated with those entities,” the platform adds.
Images of the new designation on NPR’s Twitter page went viral, leading many people to thank Musk personally.
Musk shared a screenshot explaining Twitter’s explanation of what typifies a “state-affiliated media” page and commented, “Seems accurate.”
In a post on its website about being designated as “state-affiliated media,” NPR claimed that is “untrue.”
“NPR operates independently of the U.S. government,” the post said. “And while federal money is important to the overall public media system, NPR gets less than 1% of its annual budget, on average, from federal sources.”
CEO John Lansing called the public broadcaster a home for “independent, fact-based journalism.”
“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 in a statement.
NPR also said it reached out to Twitter to inquire about the designation.
The outlet was met with an automated response of an emoji.
“In response to an NPR email for this story seeking comment and requesting details about what in particular might have led to the new designation, the company’s press account auto-replied with a poop emoji — a message it has been sending to journalists for weeks,” NPR reported.
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