Twitter Falsely Labels NPR as ''State-Affiliated Media''

RADIO ONLINE | Wednesday, April 5, 2023 | 4:45pm CT

National Public Radio

Twitter has falsely labeled NPR as "state-affiliated media" on NPR's main account on Tuesday, applying the same label to the nonprofit media company that Twitter uses to designate official state mouthpieces and propaganda outlets in countries such as Russia and China. Of course, NPR operates independently of the U.S. government and receives less than 1% of its annual budget, on average, from federal sources.

NPR CEO John Lansing stated, "NPR stands for freedom of speech and holding the powerful accountable. It is unacceptable for Twitter to label us this way. A vigorous, vibrant free press is essential to the health of our democracy."

NPR officials have asked Twitter to remove the label. They initially assumed it was applied by mistake, said NPR spokesperson Isabel Lara. "We were not warned. It happened quite suddenly last night."

Twitter's owner and CEO, Elon Musk, acknowledged the new tag was applied to NPR. Responding to a tweet about the shift, Musk posted an image of a screenshot showing Twitter's policy defining state-affiliated media, with a short message: "Seems accurate."

Twitter's policy describes state-affiliated media as "outlets where the state exercises control over editorial content through financial resources, direct or indirect political pressures, and/or control over production and distribution."

As recently as Tuesday, Twitter's policy page stated explicitly that NPR would not be included in this label -- before the wording was altered to remove NPR.

"Twitter's decision to label NPR as a state media outlet flies in the face of years of research, all evidence about NPR's funding and governance, and Twitter's own policies and principles," said former Twitter head of trust and safety Yoel Roth in a message to NPR.