Twitter on Tuesday drew a false equivalence between NPR and state propaganda agencies. Elon Musk’s social media platform declared NPR “US state-affiliated media,” a warning affixed to NPR’s Twitter page that, as Forbes notes, has typically been used to identify foreign media outlets funded by the government and espousing pro-government views. Other outlets with the label include Russia’s RT (Russia Today) and China’s Xinhau. “State-affiliated media is defined as outlets where the state exercises control over editorial content through financial resources, direct or indirect political pressures, and/or control over production and distribution,” Twitter’s Help Center states. The FAQ continues that “state-financed media organizations with editorial independence, like the BBC in the UK for example, are not defined as state-affiliated media for the purposes of this policy.” Until recently, Twitter also listed NPR alongside BBC as an example of “state-financed media organizations with editorial independence” in its guidelines. NPR, however, was removed from Twitter’s Help Center FAQ, as the public radio outlet’s David Gura pointed out:
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“We were disturbed to see last night that Twitter has labeled NPR as ‘state-affiliated media,’ a description that, per Twitter’s own guidelines, does not apply to NPR. NPR and our Member stations are supported by millions of listeners who depend on us for the independent, fact-based journalism we provide,” NPR president and CEO John Lansing said in a statement to Vanity Fair. “NPR stands for freedom of speech and holding the powerful accountable. It is unacceptable for Twitter to label us this way. A vigorous, vibrant free press is essential to the health of our democracy.”
Journalists at other outlets also pushed back against the designation, with some noting that the US government funds less than 1% of NPR’s budget on average, according to NPR. Among them was The Atlantic’s Derek Thompson, who threw it back at Musk, asking, “If NPR receiving less than 1% of its revenue from federal government programs makes it ‘state-affiliated media,’ does Tesla accepting a $465m loan from DOE and benefiting from EV consumer subsidies make it ‘state-affiliated enterprise?’” Fox News’ Jacqui Heinrich called on Musk to “explain why NPR is being equated to publications under autocratic control.” The Washington Post’s Ben Pauker noted that tagging NPR as a state-affiliated media organization means, according to Twitter’s own guidelines, “Twitter will not recommend or amplify accounts or their Tweets with these labels to people.”
The NPR designation is among a sea of puzzling moves coming out of Twitter, which continues to be steered, seemingly, more by Musk’s personal whims than anything else. Verified Twitter users prepared to lose their blue check under Twitter’s new policy, as the platform said it would begin “winding down” the blue checks dispensed as part of its old verification process on April 1; those who wanted to keep the verification, Musk said, needed to sign up for Twitter Blue, a subscription service charging $8 a month. That didn’t happen. “Most legacy blue check holders found this weekend that their verification marks had not disappeared, but rather had been appended with a new label reading: ‘This account is verified because it’s subscribed to Twitter Blue or is a legacy verified account,’” CNN reported, noting that this new label obscures the difference between notable individuals and those who have paid for the subscription service.
But one account that was stripped of its blue check over the weekend was that of the New York Times. The Times was among several organizations, from the White House to Politico, that have said they do not plan to pay $1,000 a month to keep their verification, Axios reported. Musk was tweeting about the Times on Sunday, following the removal of the organization’s verification badge. “The real tragedy of @NYTimes is that their propaganda isn’t even interesting,” he wrote in a tweet, adding that ”their feed is the Twitter equivalent of diarrhea.” But even Musk’s targeting of the Times seemed somewhat haphazard, as the blue-check verification for other Times Twitter accounts, like Books and Politics, remains in place.
Making his mark on the organization, Musk has also replaced Twitter’s blue bird icon with an image of a Shiba Inu dog—the symbol of the digital cryptocurrency Dogecoin. “As promised,” Musk tweeted, with a screenshot of a thread from last year in which a user suggested he “just buy Twitter” and “change the bird logo to a doge.” Musk, who has publicly endorsed the coin for years, changed Twitter’s logo to the Dogecoin symbol days after attorneys for Twitter and Musk asked a federal judge to dismiss a $250 billion racketeering lawsuit that accuses Musk of “running a pyramid scheme to support the cryptocurrency Dogecoin,” according to Reuters. As CNBC reported, Dogecoin jumped more than 30% following Musk’s logo change.
The doge stunt has been, for some, a reminder of the extent to which the platform continues to function like a toy for Musk. (Twitter replied to Vanity Fair’s request for comment with a poop emoji, an automatic response from Twitter’s press email.) “Musk replacing the blue Twitter bird with this stupid dog is alienating me from this platform more than all the blue check stuff which I’ve been studiously ignoring,” the Times’ Charlie Savage tweeted. “I just want to use Twitter, not think about Musk, but the dog is making me think about him.”
