NPR quits Twitter over having its ‘credibility’ undermined
Twitter labelled the NPR account as ‘government-funded media’ when its US government funding accounts for less than 1% of its budget.
The US-based National Public Radio (NPR) has announced it will quit Twitter after an issue over how its account is described. The social media platform labelled the NPR account as ‘government-funded media’ when, in reality, the not-for-profit news organisation only receives US government funding for less than 1% of its budget.
NPR said Twitter was undermining its credibility, as US government funding accounts for less than 1% of its budget. NPR became the first major US news outlet to leave the platform, despite having 8.8 million followers. Elon Musk reacted to the decision in a series of tweets criticising NPR.
The decision to leave Twitter came after the BBC objected to being labelled as ‘government-funded media’. The label on the BBC’s account was updated to ‘publicly-funded media’.