Description
Twitter has removed the labels "state-affiliated" and "government-funded" from media accounts, according to an AFP review on Friday of many of the platform's high-profile pages. According to AFP, many major media outlets in Western countries, Russia, China, and other countries that previously had any of these labels no longer display them. They included reports from National Public Radio in the United States, China's official Xinhua News Agency, Russia's RT and Canada's CBC, at 06:00 GMT.
Twitter, acquired by flighty billionaire Elon Musk last year, had long tagged accounts linked to state media or government officials, particularly from China and Russia.
He said the policy focuses on entities that "are the official voice of the nation-state abroad."
Recently, however, the labels have been applied to news organizations that received public funding but were not controlled by any government.
NPR stopped using Twitter afterwards, and CBC followed suit.
Radio New Zealand also threatened to quit Twitter this week under the label "government funded", while Swedish public radio Sveriges said it would stop tweeting.
But all the beacons were gone by Friday.
The change came shortly after Twitter began the mass removal of its blue ticks on Thursday, a symbol that previously meant a verified account.
Musk, who has seen his $44 billion investment in the platform dwindle, changed the system to allow anyone paying $8 a month to earn the badge.
Musk's tumultuous ownership of Twitter has seen thousands of employees fired and advertisers flee the platform.
Users have complained about the proliferation of hate speech and misinformation, and accounts with extreme views are gaining ground due to less content moderation.
