US radio broadcaster NPR stops posting on Twitter over 'state-affiliated media' label

The National Public Radio upheld a freeze of activity on Twitter Friday as a report said Elon Musk was revisiting his decision to label the radio broadcaster as “state-affiliated.”

In its updated Twitter bio, NPR’s main account — which has more than 8.8 million followers — invited users to “find us every other place where you read the news.”

Other accounts run by NPR, such as its music and politics handles, did not have the “state-affiliated” specification and have continued to post tweets.

Twitter earlier this week designated Washington-based NPR as “state-affiliated media.”

Musk’s move against NPR came just days after Twitter stripped The New York Times of its verified status on the platform.

According to Twitter policy, the decisions will deamplify tweets from both companies, limiting their reach on a platform that remains a major communication tool for media outlets, celebrities and officials.

NPR CEO John Lansing said the decision by Twitter was “unacceptable” and the radio’s account has remained silent ever since.

“We stopped tweeting from the main @NPR account after they attached that false label to it because each tweet we publish would carry it,” NPR spokesperson Isabel Lara said.

The pause would last “until we hear back from Twitter on this,” she told the Nieman Journalism Lab.

The radio broadcaster receives US government funding through grants from federal agencies and departments, along with the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. The company said it accounts for less than 1% of NPR’s annual operating budget. But until Wednesday, the same Twitter guidelines said that “state-financed media organizations with editorial independence, like the BBC in the UK or NPR in the United States, are not defined as state-affiliated media for the purposes of this policy.”

Meanwhile, on Thursday, NPR said Musk had signaled in a series of emails that the relabeling may not have been “accurate” and that Twitter would look further into the matter.

“The operating principle at Twitter is simply fair and equal treatment, so if we label non-US accounts as government, then we should do the same for the US, but it sounds like that might not be accurate here,” Musk wrote to NPR.

With inputs from agencies

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