Elon Musk’s Twitter Labels BBC as ‘Government Funded Media’

Guwahati: Twitter CEO Elon Musk has caused a stir following the BBC’s designation on the microblogging platform as “government funded media.”

However, the national broadcaster of Britain spoke out right away about the classification.

The BBC’s other accounts, such as BBC News (World) and BBC Breaking News, have not yet received the moniker.

It has come to light that the title “government-funded media” appears on organisations that receive some government financing, such as PBS, NPR, and Voice of America, but not on organisations that receive full government sponsorship, like Canada’s CBC or Qatar’s Al Jazeera.

Meanwhile, in a statement provided to CNN, BBC said, “We are speaking to Twitter to resolve this issue as soon as possible. The BBC is and always has been, independent. We are funded by the British public through the licence fee.”

Amid this row, a twitter user asked, “CBC gets $1.2 billion per year from the Canadian gov (70% of its funding). @elonmusk, can you add a label?”

To this Elon Musk replied, “We need to add more granularity to editorial influence, as it varies greatly. I don’t actually think the BBC is as biased as some other government-funded media, but it is silly of the BBC to claim zero influence. Minor government influence in their case would be accurate.”