CBC halts Twitter use to oppose 'government-funded' label

Screenshot: Toronto Star

The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) is the latest broadcaster to "pause" its activity on Twitter after the platform labelled it as a "government-funded media." The media outlet rebutted Twitter's use of the label that suggests the government could influence editorial output. It wanted to emphasize that reporting is "impartial and independent." Following its announcement Twitter CEO Elon Musk changed the designation to "69% government-funded media."

It's unclear if CBC is in talks with Twitter to change the label. The UK's British Broadcasting Corporation succeeded in having Twitter change its label to "publicly-funded" soon after it quickly organized an interview with Musk.

The CBC is a Crown corporation—which means it is completely owned by the Canadian government—but it's editorially independent. Canada's Broadcasting Act enshrines the hands-off approach in law. CBC also makes some of its money from advertising.

This issue first started popping up in the US when National Public Radio (NPR) objected to the platform labelling it as "US state-affiliated media. Twitter then altered it to a "government-funded" institution, but as Engadget pointed out, that still implied bias. NPR quit the platform days later. The Public Broadcasting Service in the US also followed suit.