Elon Musk on Monday responded to Canada’s public broadcaster’s saying it would pause its actions on Twitter after being labelled as “government-funded media”.
Replying to CBC’s threats, Elon Musk tweeted, “Canadian Broadcasting Corp said they’re ‘less than 70 percent government-funded, so we corrected the label.”
Earlier, CBC spokesperson Leon Mar stated, “Twitter can be a powerful tool for our journalists to communicate with Canadians, but it undermines the accuracy and professionalism of the work they do to allow our independence to be falsely described in this way,” CBC reported.
“Consequently, we shall be pausing our exercise on our company Twitter account and all CBC and Radio-Canada news-related accounts,” he added. Meanwhile, on Twitter, CBC stated, “Our journalism is impartial and independent. To suggest otherwise is untrue. That is why we are pausing our activities on @Twitter.” Earlier, BBC and NPR have been labelled as “government-funded media” organisations. The @BBC account – which has 2.2 million followers – is presently branded as authorities funded. The label has not been given to the BBC’s different accounts, together with BBC News (World) and BBC Breaking News, reported CNN. Twitter has not given a definition for what it considers “government-funded media” to represent. In an announcement supplied to CNN, the BBC stated, “We are speaking to Twitter to resolve this issue as soon as possible. The BBC is and always has been, independent. We are funded by the British public through the licence fee.”
BBC’s branding comes after a row erupted between Musk and the American NPR community after Musk modified NPR’s label to “state-affiliated media” – which successfully instructed the US authorities may affect its editorial coverage and examine it to shops such because the Kremlin-funded Russia Today.
After being labelled as “Government-funded”, NPR stated that it will cease utilizing Twitter in any respect, New York Times reported.
Isabel Lara, NPR’s chief communications officer, stated in an announcement, “NPR’s organisational 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.” “We are not putting our journalism on platforms that have demonstrated an interest in undermining our credibility and the public’s understanding of our editorial independence,” she added.
