WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) – The US broadcaster NPR is suspending its activity on Twitter after a confrontation with the owner Elon Musk on ice. The more than 50 NPR accounts with the short message service should no longer be supplied with current content, as the broadcaster announced on Wednesday. NPR recommended users to use the offer via the in-house app or other online platforms.
Musk had put the NPR account with the flag as a state-controlled media organization in a row with the Chinese news agency Xinhua or the Kremlin TV station Russia Today. After criticism, the marking was changed. It is now said that NPR is a government-funded media organization. That, too, is at least misleading: Less than one percent of NPR’s annual budget of $300 million comes from state funds.
NPR also said the new classification undermined the channel’s credibility by falsely implying that it was not editorially independent. Therefore, no more journalistic content will be published on the platform.
The British public broadcaster BBC was also initially described as being funded by the government in its account. In an interview with the BBC on Wednesday night, Musk announced that he would change the label to “publicly funded”. The BBC had also protested the wrong award on Twitter.
The tech billionaire and head of the electric car manufacturer Tesla has long seen himself treated unfairly, especially by the US media. For his more than 134 million Twitter followers, Musk serves as an amplifier for right-wing political views. Musk recently accused the media of being “racist” towards whites. Speaking to The New York Times, he said its “propaganda” was “not even interesting” and called the content of the newspaper’s Twitter profile “diarrhea.” The verification tick was also withdrawn from the Twitter account of the “New York Times”./so/DP/jha