Twitter gives NPR the “government-funded media” label. – World Time Todays

Different is not always better.

That’s arguably the case with one of the latest developments on Elon Musk’s Twitter. The official Twitter account for National Public Radio(Opens in a new tab) (or NPR) controversially added a “US state media” label to its profile last week, which Gizmodo said was quietly changed to “state-funded media” over the weekend(Opens in a new tab). The original label is usually attached to more overtly propagandistic sites.

NPR hasn’t tweeted since the label originally surfaced.

Different, but somehow the same.
Photo Credit: Screenshot: Twitter

The difference between the two is largely semantic. If you click on the label it will actually take you there a page(Opens in a new tab) explains what the previous label meant. According to Twitter, this label exists for “points of sale where the state exercises control over editorial content through financial means, direct or indirect political pressure and/or control over production and distribution”.

This definition is so vague that it’s impossible to say, from the outside in, whether or not it’s 100 percent correct when it comes to NPR. Curiously, the new label is actually less broad and therefore potentially less accurate. Direct government funding accounts for only about one percent of the outlet’s annual budget, per NPR itself(Opens in a new tab).

It’s an odd evolving situation, as is pretty much everything else to do with Musk’s ownership of Twitter.