Elon Musk Calls for NPR Defunding After News Organization Leaves Twitter

As expected, NPR’s decision to leave Twitter came after the platform labeled the news organization as “state-affiliated media,” a designation used for media companies in countries where the government controls the media. NPR clarified that this was inaccurate since it is a private nonprofit with editorial independence, leading Twitter to change its label to “government-funded media.” However, NPR argues that this is also incorrect since only 1% of its annual budget comes from the federally funded Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

In light of these designations, NPR has chosen to stop publishing its reporting on Twitter, with CEO John Lansing citing a loss of faith in Twitter’s decision-making. He emphasized the importance of protecting NPR’s credibility, stating that he would not risk it by publishing content on a platform that associates NPR’s federal charter with a disregard for editorial independence and standards.

In response to NPR’s departure, Elon Musk called for defunding NPR, and the hashtag #Defund trended on Twitter. It’s worth noting that Twitter is currently dealing with a bug that is making users’ private tweets public. The New York Times has also left aggregation services like Apple News in the past.