NPR Leaves Twitter Over 'Government-Funded Media' Labeling

pcmag.com:

NPR is leaving Twitter after Elon Musk decided to label the news organization as a government-affiliated entity on the social media platform.

“NPR’s organizational 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,” the media outlet said in a statement on Wednesday. 

NPR’s Twitter account, which has 8.8 million followers, is still live. It posted several tweets(Opens in a new window) today—presumably its last—that encourage users to listen and read about NPR articles from other sources, such as by downloading the NPR app(Opens in a new window).  

“We are turning away from Twitter but not from our audiences and communities,” the radio network added in the statement. “There are plenty of ways to stay connected and keep up with NPR's news, music, and cultural content.”

NPR is bailing on the platform a week after Twitter decided to tag its account with the label “US-state affiliated media.” Twitter originally created the label to help users identify tweets from state-controlled news agencies, such as China’s People’s Daily and Russia’s RT.com, which are known for circulating government propaganda. But Twitter’s new owner, Elon Musk, expanded the label to NPR, even though the radio network operates as an independent news organization. 

The radio network receives less than 1% of its funding from federal grants (though it does receive funds from member stations, which can also receive government funding), but Musk argues that the money means NPR is a biased source.

After some pushback, Twitter removed the “US-state affiliated media” from NPR’s account only to replace it with a new label that says