After a public row between Twitter CEO Elon Musk and National Public Radio (NPR) led to the latter leaving Twitter, another publicly-funded media giant has followed suit and announced that it will not be using the platform anymore until a label deeming it ‘Government-Funded media’ is removed.

The tag, which was previously reserved for Chinese and Russian media outlets, has now been given to any media outlet that receives government funding.

NPR and PBS believe that the tag undermines their credibility, despite the fact that both media outlets receive significant government funding.

Musk defended his decision during a recent BBC interview.

‘We’re trying to be accurate,’  Musk said in the interview. ‘I actually do have a lot of respect for the BBC, ‘ He further said.

After the interview, Twitter labeled the BBC as ‘publicly funded,’ a seemingly symbolic concession.

The shift in policy comes after a series of other controversial changes such as removing celebrities ‘verified’ checkmarks unless they pay $8 a month as other Twitter users started doing to subscribe to ‘Twitter Blue’.

The Post Millenial Reports

The Public Broadcasting Service has confirmed that it will no longer be using Twitter in response to Elon Musk’s decision to label it “government-funded media.”

The move comes as other major media groups, such as National Public Radio, ditch the platform in protest over the labels, which they argue are inaccurate.

According to Axios, a PBS spokesperson revealed Thursday that the service “did stop tweeting … as soon as we discovered [the label],” adding that, “we have no plans to resume tweeting.”

The label has been placed on PBS’ main Twitter account, but not its local affiliates or individual shows, which will continue tweeting.

“Publicly funded PBS joins publicly funded NPR in leaving Twitter in a huff after being labeled ‘Publicly Funded’,” Twitter CEO Elon Musk joked.

Journalist Kate Lindsay pointed out that PBS has, on many occasions, posted about its federal funding.

On it’s @ValuePBS account, the public broadcaster shared nine reasons to love what they do, and a number of them centered around its funding.

“Public Broadcasting is one of America’s best investments,” it argued

Join The Conversation. Leave a Comment.


We have no tolerance for comments containing violence, racism, profanity, vulgarity, doxing, or discourteous behavior. If a comment is spam, instead of replying to it please click the ∨ icon below and to the right of that comment. Thank you for partnering with us to maintain fruitful conversation.