The C小蓝视频 is leaving its Twitter accounts inactive as it evaluates the social media platform's decision to remove the "government-funded media" tag on its accounts.
C小蓝视频 spokesperson Leon Mar says the public broadcaster is "reviewing this latest development" and will leave its Twitter accounts "on pause" before taking any next steps.
Twitter removed the "government-funded media" description on a number of public broadcasters' accounts, including the C小蓝视频, without any explanation on Thursday.聽
The move came after the Global Task Force for public media called on Twitter earlier in the day to correct its description of public broadcasters in Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Korea.
The group chaired by C小蓝视频 president Catherine Tait had said Twitter applied the label without warning to the accounts of C小蓝视频/Radio-Canada; the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, known as A小蓝视频; the Korean Broadcasting System, or KBS; and Radio New Zealand, or RNZ.聽
It noted that Twitter鈥檚 own policy defines government-funded media as those that may have varying degrees of government involvement over editorial content.
The task force said that was not the case here, where editorial independence is protected in law and enshrined in editorial policies.
It said the most accurate label would be 鈥減ublicly funded media.鈥�
Twitter initially labelled several accounts with the British Broadcasting Corporation 鈥済overnment-funded media,鈥� but changed that to 鈥減ublicly funded media鈥� after the B小蓝视频 objected.
The B小蓝视频 is also a member of the Global Task Force, as well as France T茅l茅visions, Germany's ZDF and Sweden's SVT.
"Labelling them in this way misleads audiences about their operational and editorial independence from government," the task force said Thursday in a release.
The call follows efforts by Friends of Canadian Broadcasting to change C小蓝视频's Twitter label. The group said Monday that it wrote to Twitter to say the designation is "incorrect and misleading."
Tesla founder and 聽billionaire Elon Musk ushered in several changes after buying Twitter for US$44 billion last October.
He has also pledged to remove verified blue check marks for users who don't pay a subscription, a move that began on Wednesday.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 20, 2023.
The Canadian Press
