Elon Musk's Twitter Equates NPR With Russia's RT, China's Xinhua With 'State-Affiliated' Label

Billionaire Elon Musk owned Twitter Inc on Tuesday compared NPR with Russia’s RT and China’s Xinhua, both of which have been labeled as “state-affiliated media” by the social-media giant.

What Happened: Twitter placed a label on NPR's Twitter handle designating it as “state-affiliated media,” a term typically used for foreign media organizations that represent the official views of their respective governments. 

Several Twitter users also pointed out that Twitter had previously stated that news organizations such as NPR were not considered “state-affiliated media” because they maintain editorial independence, despite receiving funding from the government.

According to Twitter's Help Center, "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." 

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Until recently, Twitter's Help Center explanation read that "accounts belonging to state-affiliated media entities, their editors-in-chief, and/or their prominent staff may be labeled. State-financed media organizations with editorial independence, like the BBC in the UK or NPR in the US, for example, are not defined as state-affiliated media for the purposes of this policy."

It was changed on Tuesday morning, according to the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine. The website still mentions the BBC but the reference to NPR was deleted. 

A poop emoji – set up by Musk – was sent as an automated response in an email sent by Benzinga to Twitter in a request for comment. 

Meanwhile, NPR slammed Musk for "applying the same label to the nonprofit media company that Twitter uses to designate official state mouthpieces and propaganda outlets in countries such as Russia and China."

"While federal money is important to the overall public media system, NPR gets less than 1% of its annual budget, on average, from federal sources," it said.

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