Following a spat with the platform’s CEO Elon Musk over the label granted to it, US radio NPR has stated that it will no longer post anything on its official Twitter handles. According to NPR’s CEO, the decision was made to defend the network’s integrity and to assist it in continuing to provide journalism without “a shadow of negativity.” NPR CEO John Lansing said in an interview, “I would never have our content go anywhere that would risk our credibility.”
NPR claims to be a private, nonprofit organization with complete editorial independence
Lansing also stated that the culture of Twitter has deteriorated to the point that abusive content is now common, which was one of the elements that influenced NPR’s decision to withdraw. NPR has 52 official Twitter streams and is the first major news institution to abandon Twitter entirely. NPR has been embroiled in a legal battle with Twitter over the title “state-affiliated media,” which refers to propaganda operations in Russia, China, and other similar countries.
Last week, NPR was astonished to see the label. One of NPR’s reporters raised the issue on Twitter, to which Musk responded by asking about how NPR works and admitting that he isn’t quite familiar with how it operates. The title was eventually altered to “government-funded media,” although NPR claims that is also incorrect. NPR claims to be a private, nonprofit organization with complete editorial independence. It claims that the federally sponsored Corporation for Public Broadcasting accounts for less than 1% of its $300 million yearly budget.
Lansing said that even if the label was dropped by Twitter, he isn’t ready to return to the platform
Lansing said that even if the label was dropped by Twitter, he isn’t ready to return to the platform just yet since he has lost “faith in the decision-making at Twitter”. “I would need some time to understand whether Twitter can be trusted again.” However, he states that its journalists and staff members are allowed to continue using Twitter.
“It would be a disservice to the serious work you all do here to continue to share it on a platform that associates the federal charter for public media with an abandonment of editorial independence or standards,” Lansing wrote in an email to the staff.