DealMakerz

Complete British News World

Twitter labels NPR a “state affiliate”

Twitter labels NPR a “state affiliate”

Public service company NPR — which claims to operate completely independently of the US government — responded with dismay at Twitter’s decision.

“NPR stands for freedom of expression and accountability for those in power. It is unacceptable for Twitter to characterize us as such. A free, strong, and vibrant press is essential to the well-being of our democracy,” CEO John Lansing said in a statement. Published by NPR.

The company states that it receives less than one percent of its annual budget from the US government.

The answer: Poop emoji

NPR account tagging is the same as Twitter uses to label accounts that openly act as government mouthpieces or propaganda agencies in countries like China and Russia.

When NPR emailed Twitter’s press department to ask for clarification, they got an automatic response with a poop emoji — a message that Twitter According to NPR Sent to reporters for several weeks.

according to Twitter’s privacy policy The label in question is used for media companies where “the state exercises control over editorial content through financial resources, direct or indirect political pressure, and/or control over production and distribution.” Most recently, on Tuesday, the policy specifically stated that “state-funded media organizations such as the BBC in the UK or NPR in the US” were not defined as state lines — now deleted.

Expensive reviews

Since Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, took over Twitter in 2022, scandals have followed one another. Among other things, shortly after the acquisition, Musk chose to drastically reduce the workforce. At the same time, question marks have been piling up surrounding where Musk is headed on Twitter.

Last week, several media outlets criticized the monthly fee that Twitter charges for the blue tick that “verifies” accounts on the social network.

For example, have New York times They lost their money because they refused to pay a fee of $1,000 a month, roughly equivalent to SEK 10,000.

Twitter was founded in 2002 in the United States by American Jack Dorsey and has grown into one of the largest social media platforms in the world. The company is headquartered in San Francisco.

In October 2022, billionaire businessman Elon Musk bought the platform for the equivalent of roughly SEK 500 billion. The deal, and Musk’s actions as CEO of Twitter, have attracted a lot of attention since then.

On Twitter, users can post short text messages, photos or videos and discuss them with others in conversation threads. Posts can also be equipped with so-called hashtags for certain topics, which makes it easier to follow certain events.

There are approximately 1.3 billion Twitter accounts, but only about 335 million active users.

Sources: NE, Statista, and Twitter