NPR president and CEO John Lansing fired back at Twitter on Wednesday after the social media platform labeled the news organization as “state-affiliated media.”
“We were disturbed to see last night that Twitter has labeled NPR as ‘state-affiliated media,’ a description that, per Twitter’s own guidelines, does not apply to NPR,” Lansing said in a statement posted to Twitter.
Twitter’s guidelines define state-affiliated media 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.”
For instance, Russian state-owned news agency TASS is labeled as “Russia state-affiliated media,” and China’s official state news agency Xinhua is labeled as “China state-affiliated media.”
NPR stands for freedom of speech & holding the powerful accountable. A vigorous, vibrant free press is essential to the health of our democracy.
— John Lansing (@johnlansing) April 5, 2023
My full statement on the recent inaccurate Twitter label below: pic.twitter.com/kdusUNtNUo
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