The public broadcaster accused the platform of “taking actions that undermine our credibility by falsely implying that we are not editorially independent”
NPR will no longer use Twitter, accusing the platform of “taking actions that undermine our credibility by falsely implying that we are not editorially independent,” in a decision announced Wednesday, April 12.
The move makes NPR the first major news outlet to stop publishing new content on Twitter; the rule will apply to all 52 official Twitter feeds operated by NPR, such as NPR Music and NPR Politics. The decision comes after Twitter unexpectedly added a “state-affiliated media” label to the public broadcaster’s main account last week. That tag was later revised to “government-funded media,” though NPR has said both are false and misleading.
In comparison to propaganda outlets in countries like Russia and China — to which the “state-affiliated media” tag is typically applied — NPR is a private, non-profit company that maintains editorial independence from the U.S. government. Additionally, less than one percent of NPR’s budget comes from the federally funded Corporation for Public Broadcasting. (PBS was also hit with a “government-funded media” tag, even though it too is independent of the government.)
In an interview, NPR’s chief executive John Lansing said, “I would never have our content go anywhere that would risk our credibility.”
Coincidentally, Twitter CEO Elon Musk addressed this issue in an interview with the BBC published earlier today. Twitter also labeled the BBC “government-funded media,” a label the British broadcaster rejected on similar grounds as NPR (it’s funded by the British public through the country’s license fee). In the interview, Musk said Twitter would change the tag on the BBC’s account to say it was “publicly funded.”
Lansing, however, said he wasn’t sure NPR would return to Twitter even if the tag was changed to “publicly funded” or dropped completely. “At this point, I have lost my faith in the decision-making at Twitter,” he said. “I would need some time to understand whether Twitter can be trusted again.”
It does not appear that NPR’s 52 accounts will go quiet immediately, as the broadcaster will give its various social media teams a “two-week grace period” to adjust their strategies. The policy also does not apply to individual NPR journalists and staffers, who can keep using Twitter if they want.
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