On Friday, Twitter removed the “state-affiliated media” and “government-funded media” labels it had applied to several media accounts so far.
Many major media accounts, both in the West and in China, Russia and elsewhere, that previously used one of these labels no longer do so, AFP found. This Thursday (20), the Twitter removed the verification badge thousands of social network users.
Among them were the accounts of the American public radio (NPR), the official Chinese news agency Xinhua, the Russian RT, the Canadian CBC and the Spanish RTVE.
This label has long accompanied accounts linked to state media or government officials, including Chinese and Russian.
The social network maintained that this rule applies to entities that “are the official voice of a state abroad”.
However, the platform, acquired by billionaire Elon Musk last yearrecently changed its policy and started awarding such a label to media that receive public funding, even if they are not controlled by any government.
In response, some outlets stopped using Twitter or threatened to pull out of the social network.
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