Elon Musk responded to the Canadian public broadcaster’s announcement on Monday that it was ceasing its activities on Twitter after being labeled as a “state-funded media”.
In response to CBC’s threats, Elon Musk tweeted, “Canadian Broadcasting Corp said they are less than 70 percent government funded so we corrected the label.”
Earlier, CBC spokesman Leon Mar said, “Twitter can be a powerful tool for our journalists to communicate with Canadians, but it undermines the accuracy and professionalism of their work to allow our independence to be misrepresented in this way,” reported cbc .
“Consequently, we will pause our activities in our company Twitter Account and all CBC and Radio-Canada news-related accounts,” he added. Meanwhile, CBC said on Twitter: “Our journalism is impartial and independent. To claim otherwise is wrong. That’s why we’re ceasing our activity on @Twitter.” The BBC and NPR used to be described as “government-funded media” organizations. The @BBC account – which has 2.2million followers – is currently branded as being government-funded and has not been shared with the BBC’s other accounts, including BBC News (World) and BBC Breaking News, CNN reported. Twitter has not provided a definition of what it considers “state-funded media”. In a statement provided to CNN, the BBC said: “We are speaking to Twitter to resolve this issue as quickly as possible. The BBC is and always has been independent. We are funded by the UK public through the royalty.”
The BBC’s branding comes after a row erupted between Musk and America’s NPR network after Musk changed NPR’s label to “state-affiliated media” – effectively suggesting the US government is influencing its editorial policies and could compare to media like Kremlin-funded Russia Today.
After being labeled “government-funded,” NPR said it would stop using Twitter altogether, the New York Times reported.
Isabel Lara, NPR’s chief communications officer, said in a statement: “NPR’s 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. “We do not place our journalism on platforms that have shown an interest in undermining our credibility and the public’s understanding of our editorial independence,” she added.
