The CBC has stopped using Twitter after Elon Musk designated it government-funded media

The Canadian Broadcasting Corp. (CBC) announced it’s suspending the use of its Twitter account after CEO Elon Musk labeled the public broadcaster “government-funded media.” The CBC said the designation—historically used for news sources directly controlled by governments—aims to undermine its credibility.Paulina Porizkova on being an Estee Lauder modelA similar incident occurred last week when Musk labeled US public broadcaster National Public Radio (NPR) as government-funded, even though NPR receives less than 1% of its revenue from the state. NPR also responded by suspending all activity on the site.Twitter has been alienating news outlets for months now, doing things like unilaterally removing the verified checkmark from the New York Times’ account, after the newspaper said it wouldn’t pay for the Twitter Blue subscription service.The CBC said its editorial independence is protected by Canada’s Broadcasting Act. In 2021-22, the broadcaster received roughly $1.2 billion Canadian ($900 million) from the federal government. “Twitter can be a powerful tool for our journalists to communicate with Canadians, but it undermines the accuracy and professionalism of the work they do to allow our independence to be falsely described in this way,” Leon Mar, a spokesperson for the CBC, said in a statement announcing it would pause all
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