Why Elon Musk Modified CBC’s ‘Government Funded Media’ Label on Twitter

Elon Musk on Monday responded to Canada’s public broadcaster’s saying it will pause its activities 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 said, “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 will be pausing our activity on our corporate Twitter account and all CBC and Radio-Canada news-related accounts,” he added. Meanwhile, on Twitter, CBC said, “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 currently branded as government funded. The label has not been given to the BBC’s other accounts, including BBC News (World) and BBC Breaking News, reported CNN. Twitter has not given a definition for what it considers “government-funded media” to constitute. In a statement provided to CNN, the BBC said, “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 network after Musk changed NPR’s label to “state-affiliated media” – which effectively suggested the US government could influence its editorial policy and compare it to outlets such as the Kremlin-funded Russia Today.

After being labelled as “Government-funded”, NPR said that it would stop using Twitter at all, New York Times reported.

Isabel Lara, NPR’s chief communications officer, said in a statement, “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.