Elon Musk has gone to war with Canadian broadcaster CBC after Twitter labelled accounts ‘government-funded media’ on the platform.
The media channel has paused activities on its corporate and news Twitter accounts after being stamped with the unwelcomed label.
It comes just weeks after the BBC was issued with a similar label, moves which have now been reversed.
Corporate spokesperson Leon Mar said: “Twitter can be a powerful tool for our journalists to communicate with Canadians, but it undermines the accuracy and professionalism of the work they do to allow our independence to be falsely described in this way,” said corporate spokesperson Leon Mar.
“Consequently, we will be pausing our activity on our corporate Twitter account and all CBC and Radio-Canada news-related accounts.”
The pause will also apply to all CBC Sports accounts, entertainment-related accounts — such as for CBC-TV and radio programs — and any regional accounts.
According to Twitter, “government-funded media is defined as outlets where the government provides some or all of the outlet’s funding and may have varying degrees of government involvement over editorial content.”
Late Monday, Twitter CEO Elon Musk tweeted, “Their concern has been addressed,” with the CBC label changed to “70 per cent Government-funded Media.”
About an hour later, it changed again to “69 per cent Government-funded Media,” reflecting what Musk said was based on the CBC’s government funding of “less than 70 per cent.”
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