On Friday, Twitter removed the controversial labels describing NPR and other prominent broadcast news organizations as “government-funded.” The companies were informed by way of an email from Twitter owner Elon Musk, who said it came on the recommendation of Walter Isaacson. The page on Twitter’s website that detailed its policy on media labels has also been removed.
The change came after criticism from NPR and public broadcasters in several countries. NPR and many of its member stations including LA’s KCRW and Boston’s WBUR moved to boycott the social network after being designated “US state-affiliated media”.
Twitter later changed the tag to “Government-funded Media,” and applied it to the BBC, then changed the phrase again to “publicly funded media”. PBS, the CBC and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation were also tagged and moved to boycott.
It remains to be seen whether NPR and other media outlets will return to the platform. In an interview last week, NPR CEO John Lansing said, “At this point I have lost my faith in the decision-making at Twitter. I would need some time to understand whether Twitter can be trusted again.”
