Musk has marked NPR as state-controlled

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The American broadcaster NPR is now classified as state-controlled on Twitter – as are the news agencies Xinhua from China or Tass from Russia.

The flag has implications for NPR, as Twitter limits the reach of such profiles. NPR chief John Lansing called Twitter’s action “unacceptable.” NPR stands for freedom of expression and for holding those in power to account.

The classification is factually incorrect: NPR is independent and funding comes from donations and contributions from affiliated broadcasters, in addition to a public fund.

Until recently, even Twitter’s own guidelines for flagging government-funded channels stated that editorially independent channels such as NPR and the BBC were excluded in the UK. After Musk was tweeted about the contradiction by a Washington Post journalist, Twitter removed NPR from the sentence.

In a tweet, Musk referenced the description that media would be flagged where the state exerts editorial control over financial or political pressure. He didn’t explain exactly how that applies to NPR.

Exactly why the transmitter came on Musk’s radar also remained unclear. He did, however, recently respond with an exclamation mark to a criticism of an NPR article shared by a Twitter confidant. The text was about conspiracy theories fueled by right-wing activists, according to which ‘elites’ promoted the consumption of insects to control the population.

As a Twitter owner with more than 130 million followers, Musk currently serves as an amplifier for right-wing political views. Among other things, he railed against the “woke brain virus”, joining those who argue that the current commitment to combating various forms of discrimination goes too far.

Musk recently accused the media of being “racist” toward whites. In the case of the New York Times, he claimed that their “propaganda” wasn’t even interesting and called the content of the paper’s Twitter profile “Duchfall.” The verification check was also pulled from the New York Times account. The tech billionaire and boss of the electric car manufacturer Tesla has long been treated unfairly by the American media.

(SDA)

Source: Blick