Twitter removes labels for ‘Government-funded’ and ‘China state-affiliated’ media
Chinese publishers’ accounts started getting the label in 2020, while NPR and CBC were labelled earlier this month.
Twitter dropped a new system of labelling that implies government involvement in editorial content such as ‘Government-funded’ or ‘China state-affiliated’. Twitter dropped the ‘Government-funded’ media label from US-based National Public Radio (NPR), British Broadcasting Corp, and Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) accounts. Similarly, the tag ‘China state-affiliated media’ was removed from the accounts of Xinhua News and journalists linked with government-supported publications.
Chinese publishers’ accounts started getting the label in 2020, while NPR and CBC were labelled earlier this month. This led to a dispute with NPR and CBC that ended with the media organisations quitting their Twitter accounts, arguing that the label did not accurately capture their governance structure.
On Thursday, Twitter also removed the legacy verified blue tick from the profile of thousands of people, including celebrities, journalists and prominent politicians such as Hillary Clinton, former US president Donald Trump, and Microsoft Corp co-founder Bill Gates.
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