Quid pro quo: What did BBC give Elon Musk for removing 'govt funded media' tag so promptly?

BBC reportedly claims that each year, households in Britain pay a £159 licencing fee that is set by the government but used to financially support the corporation

Abhishek Awasthi April 12, 2023 12:56:27 IST
Quid pro quo: What did BBC give Elon Musk for removing 'govt funded media' tag so promptly?

Twitter had done the same thing with US News media NPR. Screengrabs of their twitter profiles.

London: The British Broadcasting corporation has reportedly managed to convince Elon Musk to remove the controversial “government-funded media” tag from its twitter profile.

The tag was given to the primary BBC twitter account last week, after which the broadcaster had objected to Twitter about it.

Days later on Tuesday, Musk gave an interview to a BBC reporter in San Francisco, where he reportedly agreed to end the controversy by updating the tag.

In the interview, Musk expressed his “utmost respect” for the BBC. He also stated, “We want the tag to be as truthful and accurate as possible – we’re adjusting the label to the ‘publicly funded’ – we’ll try to be accurate.”

He also said reportedly that the BBC was “among the least biased” news sources.

Meanwhile, the BBC said in a statement following the label as “government-funded media”: “The BBC is, and always has been, independent. Through the licence fee, the British public supports us,” the statement read.

State-affiliated media are publications where the government “exercises control over editorial content through financial resources, direct or indirect political pressures, and/or control over production and distribution,” according to the Twitter’s help centre.

That description was once attached to the Twitter account of US broadcaster NPR, but it has since been altered to government-funded media, just like the BBC account.

BBC reportedly claims that each year, households in Britain pay a £159 licencing fee that is set by the government but used to financially support the corporation.

Larger accounts connected to the corporation’s breaking news and sports programming are not labelled in the same way as the BBC account, which has 2.2 million followers.

The account that was tagged mostly tweets about non-news content created by the BBC, including podcasts, radio shows, and TV shows, reports said.

Must Read: Government licensed extortion? ‘Secret’ model that funds the BBC

Read all the Latest News, Trending NewsCricket News, Bollywood News,
India News and Entertainment News here. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Updated Date:

also read

Elon Musk plans China visit, seeks meeting with premier
World

Elon Musk plans China visit, seeks meeting with premier

A visit by Elon Musk would mark his first visit to China since the COVID-19 pandemic and since Xi Jinping secured a third term as China's president

Elon Musk and experts call for halt in 'giant AI experiments'
World

Elon Musk and experts call for halt in 'giant AI experiments'

An open letter, signed by more than 1,000 people so far including Musk and Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, was prompted by the release of GPT-4 from Microsoft-backed firm OpenAI

Elon Musk replaces Twitter's blue bird logo with 'Doge' meme
World

Elon Musk replaces Twitter's blue bird logo with 'Doge' meme

The doge image (of a Shiba Inu) is well-known as the logo of the Dogecoin blockchain and cryptocurrency, which was created as a joke in 2013 -- to mock other cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin