Elon Musk Backtracks on Slapping the “State-Affiliated Media” Tag on the Twitter Account of Major Media Houses

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Perhaps in a bid to attract the still-reluctant advertisers, Elon Musk is now opting for a de-escalation of sorts in his Twitter vs. media campaign.

#UPDATE Twitter has dropped "state-affiliated" and "government-funded" labels from media accounts, according to a review by @AFP on Friday of many high-profile pages on the platform

Many major media outlets that had either of those tags no longer display them, according to AFP. pic.twitter.com/Yt2hk5qiBb

— AFP News Agency (@AFP) April 21, 2023

Just moments ago, AFP reported that Twitter has now dropped its contentious “state-affiliated media” and “government-funded” tags on the accounts of major media outlets, including NPR and BBC.

The screenshot of NPR’s Twitter account confirms this development.

For the benefit of those who might have been unaware, NPR receives a number of competitive grants from the likes of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), the Department of Education, the Department of Commerce, etc. According to NPR’s own claims, it “receives funding for less than 1% of its budget directly from the federal government, but receives almost 10% of its budget from federal, state, and local governments indirectly.” If one were inclined to put weight on semantics, NPR does receive material state-backed funding. However, some people vehemently objected to Elon Musk’s “state-affiliated media” categorization for NPR’s Twitter account in light of the non-profit media outlet’s demonstrable editorial independence. Others pointed to the inherent hypocrisy given the fact that Tesla receives government incentives that are orders of