LAST UPDATE | 21 Apr 2023

TWITTER HAS DROPPED “state-affiliated” and “government-funded” labels from media accounts, according to a review by AFP of many high-profile pages on the platform.

Many major media outlets from Western nations, Russia, China and other countries that previously had either of those tags no longer displayed them, according to AFP.

They included the accounts of National Public Radio in the United States, China’s official Xinhua news agency, RT from Russia, and Canada’s CBC, as of 6am today. 

Twitter, acquired by the mercurial billionaire Elon Musk last year, had long labelled accounts linked to state media or government officials, especially from China and Russia.

It said that policy focused on entities that “are the official voice of the nation state abroad”.

Recently, however, the labels were applied to news organisations that received public funding but were not controlled by any governments.

NPR stopped using Twitter thereafter, and CBC followed suit.

Radio New Zealand also threatened to leave Twitter this week over the “government-funded” label, while Sweden’s public Sveriges Radio said it would stop tweeting.

RTÉ this week had a note on its Twitter page marking it as ‘Publicly-funded media’.

According to Twitter, “publicly-funded media refers to media organisations that receive funding from license fees, individual contributions, public financing, and commercial financing”. 

All the tags were gone as of today.

Blue ticks

The change appeared soon after Twitter began the mass removal of its blue ticks yesterday, a symbol that previously signified a verified account.

Musk, who has seen his $44 billion investment in the platform shrivel, changed the system to allow anyone who pays $8 a month to get the badge.

However, it appears some celebrities haven’t had to pay to keep their blue tick. 

I’m paying for a few personally

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 20, 2023

The Verge confirmed that an employee at Twitter recently emailed LeBron James, who has previously said be wouldn’t pay for verification, to “extend a complimentary subscription to Twitter Blue for your account, @kingjames, on behalf of Elon Musk”. 

Musk confirmed in a tweet that he is “paying for a few” subscriptions “personally”. 

The Twitter chief also confirmed he is paying for the accounts of William Shatner and Stephen King, the Independent reported. 

You’re welcome namaste 🙏

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 20, 2023

Techsponential analyst Avi Greengart described Musk’s blue checkmarks as “receipts” rather than verification.

US Senator Brian Schatz raised the issue of the possible effect on public confidence in the event of disasters.

“There really ought to be a way for emergency managers to verify that they are real on this website or imposters will cause suffering and death,” he tweeted.

“I am not complaining about my own check mark, I just think during natural disasters it’s essential to know that FEMA is actually FEMA,” he wrote, referring to the Federal Emergency Management Agency that steps in after hurricanes and deadly storms.

Musk’s tumultuous ownership of Twitter has seen thousands of staff made redundant and advertisers fleeing the platform.

Users have complained that hate speech and misinformation have proliferated, and accounts with extreme views are gaining traction due to less content moderation.

Includes reporting by © AFP 2023