Andrew Kelly/Reuters
- Elon Musk says Twitter is relying on Wikipedia to help decide which news outlets to label "government-funded media."
- It recently labeled NPR "state-affiliated media," a move Musk later said might have been wrong, before changing it to "government-funded media."
- NPR gets less than 1% of its funding directly from the federal government.
Twitter relies on a Wikipedia page to help inform its decision on what news organizations' accounts get labeled as "government-funded media."
Elon Musk told as much to NPR reporter Bobby Allyn, and Twitter's Help Center page about government and state-affiliated media labels confirmed the policy.
"Government-funded media is defined as outlets where the government provides some or all of the outlet's funding and may have varying degrees of government involvement over editorial content. We may use external sources similar to this one in order to determine when this label is applied," the Twitter page says.
Twitter recently slapped a "state-affiliated media" label on NPR's Twitter account. The label is usually reserved for the likes of Russia Today, which is funded by the Russian government, and China's Xinhua News Agency, the official state news agency of the Chinese government.
Musk reportedly later admitted adding the "state-affiliated media" label to NPR's account might have been a mistake.
"The operating principle at new Twitter is simply fair and equal treatment, so if we label non-US accounts as govt, then we should do the same for US, but it sounds like that might not be accurate here," Musk reportedly told Allen.
Twitter has since changed the label on NPR's account to say "government-funded media."
NPR's website says, on average, less than 1% of its annual operating budget comes from federal agencies and departments and grants from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which was created by Congress's Public Broadcasting Act of 1967.
When told that the government doesn't have influence over NPR's editorial decisions, Musk said, "If you really think that the government has no influence on the entity they're funding then you've been marinating in the Kool-Aid for too long," according to Allyn.
NPR did not immediately respond to a request for comment. When contacted for comment, Twitter replied with an automated message that did not address the question.
In a statement previously shared with Insider about Twitter's initial "state-affiliated media" label on the organization's account, NPR President and CEO John Lansing said, "NPR and our Member stations are supported by millions of listeners who depend on us for the independent, fact-based journalism we provide. NPR stands for freedom of speech and holding the powerful accountable. It is unacceptable for Twitter to label us this way. A vigorous, vibrant free press is essential to the health of our democracy."
NPR spokesperson Isabel Lara said the organization will not resume tweeting until its label is removed, as any tweets posted in the interim would carry a "false disclaimer."