NPR Leaves Twitter Accused of Being Falsely Labeled

RADIO ONLINE | Thursday, April 13, 2023 | 11:00am CT

National Public Radio (NPR)

NPR has announced it would no longer post to Twitter after the platform first labeled the nonprofit as "state-affiliated media" and then changed it to "government-funded media." NPR has 52 official Twitter feeds and will no longer post fresh content to any of them. This makes NPR the first major news organization to dump the social media platform. "State-affiliated media" is the same term Twitter uses for propaganda outlets in Russia, China and other autocratic countries.

As previously reported, the decision by Twitter last week to label NPR as "state-affiliated media" caught the public radio network off guard. Twitter then revised its label on NPR's account to "government-funded media." The news organization says that is inaccurate and misleading, given that NPR is a private, nonprofit company with editorial independence. It receives less than 1 percent of its $300 million annual budget from the federally funded Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

NPR CEO John Lansing says the network is protecting its credibility and its ability to produce journalism without "a shadow of negativity." "The downside, whatever the downside, doesn't change that fact," he said said in an interview. "I would never have our content go anywhere that would risk our credibility."