Twitter removes 'state-affiliated media' labels in English

Twitter has removed the controversial mentions "state-affiliated media" and "media financed by government funds" from the pages of major media such as the American NPR or the Canadian CBC, AFP found on Friday by checking several accounts on the platform. Several Western media accounts, from Russia, China and other countries that carried this mention no longer have it, according to these findings. In addition to NPR and CBC, the official Chinese agency Xinhua (New China) or the Russian RT no longer carried this mention at 6:00 GMT.

“State-affiliated media is defined as media whose editorial content is controlled by that state through financial resources, direct or indirect political pressure and/or control over production and distribution,” could -one read on the help center of Twitter. “State-funded media organizations with editorial independence, such as the BBC in the UK or NPR in the US, are not defined as state-affiliated media for the purposes of this policy,” continued this text.

Several media, like NPR last week or Swedish public radio Sveriges Radio (SR) this week, had decided to leave the platform to protest against these mentions, added as part of the new policy deployed by the platform. since its acquisition by Elon Musk. The deletion of the mentions comes when the blue badges which made it possible to verify the accounts become payable, and are massively removed from the pages which have not subscribed.