US radio broadcaster NPR on Wednesday stated it was quitting Twitter, within the first vital defection by a serious information outlet since Elon Musk’s tumultuous takeover of the platform.
The exit caps a week-long row over Twitter’s determination to label National Public Radio as a “state-affiliated media,” branding it the identical means because it does as main media shops in authoritarian nations akin to Russia or China.
Highly-respected within the United States, NPR had already suspended tweets from its major account because it waited for Twitter to vary course, which it did solely by modifying its label for NPR to “government-funded media,” a tag it additionally utilized to Britain’s BBC.
In a brief assertion, NPR stated all its 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.”
It added that “there are plenty of ways to stay connected and keep up with NPR’s news, music, and cultural content,” urging customers to different platforms, which it linked to in a closing tweet.
Musk has expressed deep disdain for information media for years and lately put in an automated response of a poop emoji to emailed inquiries from journalists.
“Defund @NPR,” Musk tweeted Wednesday afternoon, referencing the activist motion to “defund the police.”
News organizations have struggled to wean themselves from the platform, which stays a major communication alternate for celebrities, politicians and pundits.
A spokeswoman for NPR informed AFP that its journalists, in addition to its affiliate radio stations “will be able to decide on their own if they want to stay on the platform.”
NPR’s departure got here hours after Musk indicated in a BBC interview on Tuesday that the label determination was a mistake and that he would take into account altering it to “publicly-funded.”
He additionally addressed Twitter’s controversial transfer to strip the New York Times of its blue verified examine mark after the corporate refused to pay to maintain it.
From April 20, any legacy verified accounts on Twitter — which have been established as genuine beneath the corporate’s previous possession — should pay to subscribe to Twitter Blue.
One of the explanations for this, Musk stated, was that he doesn’t need Twitter to spice up “some anointed class of journalists” who decide what constitutes information.
‘Rollercoaster’
In the interview, Musk stated operating the social media community has been “quite a rollercoaster” and acknowledged “many mistakes” alongside the way in which, six months after he purchased the corporate for $44 billion.
Assessing his time in cost, Musk stated it had been “a stressful situation over the last several months.”
“Were there many mistakes made along the way? Of course,” he stated. “But all’s well that ends well. I feel like we’re headed to a good place.”
He stated the corporate was now “roughly breaking even” thanks partly to the crushing spherical of layoffs that slashed the payroll to 1,500 workers from 7,000 earlier than the sale.
He nonetheless pushed again at stories and research that misinformation and hateful content material have been seeing a resurgence on the location since his takeover.
“You said you see more hateful content, but you can’t even name a single one,” Musk stated. “You just lied!”
Upholding his picture as a hard-charging workaholic who sacrifices his private life for his job, Musk stated he typically slept on a sofa at Twitter headquarters.
When pushed on who was Twitter’s new CEO after he pledged to seek out somebody to fill the position, he named his canine, Floki.
