Trying To Be Honest And Accurate, Twitter Removes Label "Government Funded" And "Chinese-Related Media"

JAKARTA - Twitter removed the "Government Funded" and "Chinese Government-Relations Media" labels from global media accounts on their platform on Friday, April 21. These labels show the government's involvement in editorial content.

Twitter removed the "Government Funded Media" label from the US-based National Public Radio (NPR) account, British Broadcasting Corp and Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC).

Twitter also removed the tag "Media Related to the Chinese Government" from Xinhua News accounts as well as journalists linked to publications supported by the government.

Meanwhile, China's publisher accounts, including their senior staff and several key government officials, began getting labels in 2020, NPR and CBC were just labeled earlier this month.

This makes NPR and CBC stop posting on their Twitter accounts, arguing that the label doesn't reflect their government structure accurately.

In an interview with the BBC last week, the billionaire Twitter owner, Elon Musk, said the social media platform was trying to become "accuracy" and was looking for ways to fix the label.

"Our goal is to be honest and as accurate as possible. We will adjust the label to a 'public fund', which I think may not be too contradictory," Musk said.

Twitter, NPR, CBC, and BBC did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the deletion of the label.

Twitter also removed verification blue ticks from thousands of profiles, including celebrities, journalists, and top politicians such as Hillary Clinton. Among those who lost the identification were former US President Donald Trump, Microsoft Corp founder Bill Gates, and reality TV star Kim Kardashian.