Twitter Removes 'Government-Funded' Labels From Media Accounts

Twitter has a history of labelling accounts linked to state media or government officials, particularly those from China and Russia.

Twitter removed all the tags after a series of changes.

Twitter has recently made changes to its labelling policy, specifically regarding the "state-affiliated" and "government-funded" labels for media accounts. This change affects major media outlets from Western nations, China, Russia, and other countries that previously had either of those labels. Notably, National Public Radio (NPR) in the US, China's Xinhua news agency, Russia's RT, and Canada's CBC were among those affected.

While AFP was the first to do a survey of Twitter accounts to note this, ABP Live could independently verify that the label has indeed been removed from several media accounts, including that of BBC.

#UPDATE Twitter has dropped "state-affiliated" and "government-funded" labels from media accounts, according to a review by @AFP on Friday of many high-profile pages on the platform

Many major media outlets that had either of those tags no longer display them, according to AFP. pic.twitter.com/Yt2hk5qiBb

— AFP News Agency (@AFP) April 21, 2023

Twitter has a history of labelling accounts linked to state media or government officials, particularly those from China and Russia, in an effort to identify entities that serve as the official voice of the nation-state abroad. However, recently, the labels were applied to news organisations that received public funding but were not under government control. This policy led to NPR and CBC abandoning Twitter, while Radio New Zealand threatened to do the same, and Sweden's Sveriges Radio announced it would stop tweeting.

On Friday, Twitter removed all the tags after a series of changes, including the mass removal of blue ticks on Thursday, which were previously used to signify verified accounts. The blue ticks have now been replaced by a system that allows anyone to get the badge by subscribing to 'Twitter Blue'. In India, Twitter Blue is priced at Rs 900 per month on iOS and Android, and Rs 650 on the Web client. Twitter offers a discounted yearly plan of Rs 6,500, which boils down to around Rs 566 per month. 

CEO Elon Musk, who acquired Twitter last year in a hostile $44-billion bid, has faced criticism for his tumultuous ownership of the platform, which has resulted in thousands of staff redundancies and advertisers leaving. Users have also complained of proliferating hate speech and misinformation, as well as accounts with extreme views gaining traction due to less content moderation.