Twitter CEO Elon Musk has changed the way National Public Radio is listed on the social media platform yet again, slapping a “government funded” label on the organization’s Twitter account. It seems like the label will soon be applied to other media outlets.

Twitter caused some controversy this past week when the social media platform added a label to NPR’s account declaring it was “state-affiliated media.” The move put NPR, which receives some funding from the government, on par with Russia’s RT and China’s Xinhua propaganda outlets. But Twitter has changed NPR’s label to read “government funded” on Saturday, leaving the “state affiliated” label on Xinhua and RT. For now, at least.

NPR is funded by roughly 1-2% federal funding, with the rest coming from fees and corporate sponsorships. New York Times. NPR receives some funding from the government, but it is independent of any state funding.

Australia’s ABC News and the UK’s BBC are just two examples of state-funded broadcasters that doesn’t necessarily agree with the sitting Prime Ministers of their respective countries on everything at any given time. The BBC and Australia’s ABC don’t have any label on Twitter, but that might change according to the latest reports.

NPR’s Bobby Allyn, a technology reporter for the media outlet, tweeted on Saturday that Elon Musk told him Twitter would be applying the “government funded” label to “a larger number of institutions.”

Allyn was quick to point out that Tesla has also benefited from government funding, but that isn’t disclosed on Musk’s social media network.

“Tesla, which has received billions of dollars in government subsidies over the years, does not appear to have the label,” Allyn tweeted on Saturday.

While Tesla has indeed historically benefited from government funding, Musk’s other company SpaceX is arguably much more dependent on government money. SpaceX is privately held, so it’s tough to know for sure, but some back-of-the-napkin estimates have estimated about 98% of SpaceX funding comes from government contracts.

It’s not immediately clear when the “government funded” label will start popping up on other Twitter accounts. Twitter replied to Saturday’s request for comments with an automatic email known as the “poop emoji” that Musk set up to reply to all reporters.

In recent weeks Musk caused a lot of controversy, and not only with his new NPR labeling strategy. Musk started putting a warning on all Twitter links going out to Substack, the writing platform that’s become incredibly popular. That choice cause Matt Taibbi, a journalist who worked on the so-called Twitter Files, to say he was leaving Twitter on Friday since it meant he couldn’t effectively share his work.

“It turns out Twitter is upset about the new Substack Notes feature, …read more

Source:: Social Media Explorer

Author: Aaron