Twitter has removed the "Government-funded" and "China state-affiliated" labels from the accounts of several international media organizations, including U.S.-based National Public Radio (NPR), British Broadcasting Corp (BBC), and Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC).
The company has also dropped the "China state-affiliated media" tag from the accounts of Xinhua News and journalists associated with government-backed publications.
Chinese publishers' accounts and senior staff, as well as some key government officials, started receiving the label in 2020. Meanwhile, NPR and CBC were labeled only earlier this month, leading both organizations to stop posting on Twitter as they argued the label did not accurately reflect their governance structure.
In a BBC interview last week, Twitter's billionaire owner Elon Musk stated that the social media platform was striving for accuracy and considering modifying the label. "Our goal is simply to be as truthful and accurate as possible. We're adjusting the label to be 'publicly funded,' which I think is perhaps not too objectionable," Musk said.
Twitter, NPR, CBC, and BBC did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the removal of the tag.
In another development, Twitter removed the verified blue tick from the profiles of thousands of individuals, including celebrities, journalists, and prominent politicians such as Hillary Clinton, former U.S. President Donald Trump, Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O) co-founder Bill Gates, and reality TV star Kim Kardashian.
