Twitter removed the “government-funded” label from the major media accounts. The platform has come under fire for labeling news organizations and associating them with the government.
Since Elon Musk’s takeover, Twitter had multiple controversies that made the company a target for public criticism. In one of the latest cases, Musk decided to add a “government-funded” label to major news accounts like CBC, BBC, and PBS. In an interview with BBC, Musk promised to remove the label while saying he knows “BBC is generally not thrilled about being labeled state media.”
Some news organizations also stopped using Twitter to being labeled as government-affiliated media. However, the labels and “state-affiliated” descriptions are now removed from the media accounts, and plaintiff accounts can resume their activities.
Twitter removes government-affiliated label from media accounts, but there is a catch here
While some Western media may not be directly controlled by the government, there is ample evidence that Russian and Chinese media are directly affiliated with the governments. News networks like China’s Xinhua, Russia’s RT, and Sputnik, as well as Qatar’s Al Jazeera, are state-owned. So the problem with Musk’s recent move is these state-owned networks also lost the government-funded label.
Occasional changes and controversies have made media and advertisers rethink continuing to use Twitter. According to a recent report by Insider Intelligence, Twitter’s revenue in 2023 might drop 27.9% due to the reluctance of advertisers and the low number of Blue users.
Twitter is obviously striving to change its business model and switch from advertising-based to subscription-based revenues. The platform has recently removed checkmarks from legacy accounts and announced only Blue subscribers could get the badge. This move was met with many objections from previously verified accounts, and many of them said they would never pay $8 for the badge.
Businesses on Twitter can also receive a golden badge, while a gray badge is given to government and multilateral organizations. Likewise, advertisers with minimum spending of $1000 will get the blue checkmark automatically.