WASHINGTON — Twitter has labeled NPR as a state-affiliated media, branding the nonprofit news organization with a label usually reserved for propaganda outlets such as Russia's RT and China's Xinhua news stations.
In a statement, National Public Radio President and CEO John Lansing called the label "unacceptable" and said NPR doesn't fall under Twitter's guidelines for state-sponsored outlets.
"We were disturbed to see last night that Twitter has labeled NPR as 'state-affiliated media,' a description that, per Twitter's own guidelines, does not apply to NPR," Lansing said in the statement. "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."
Twitter's Help Center defines state-affiliated media as outlets where a government controls editorial content through financial resources, political pressure or direct influence over the production and distribution of the outlet's content.
"Seems accurate," Musk tweeted along with an image of the policy in response to a user who pointed out the label change.
But the Help Center documentation for these accounts appears to contradict Musk's argument. Until April 4, the day the label was applied, a passage on the page specifically cited NPR as a state-financed news organization that was not considered state-affiliated.
"State-financed media organizations with editorial independence, like the BBC in the UK or NPR in the US for example, are not defined as state-affiliated media for the purposes of this policy," the policy read.
Snapshots of the page from the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine confirm this language.
But by April 5, the language had been amended to only refer to the BBC, although no details were provided about what makes NPR different.
NPR, which was created by an act of Congress in 1970, is not run by any government entity.
Instead, it is a nonprofit largely supported through advertisements, listener donations and grants from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a publicly funded nonprofit that provides grants to a number of radio news stations.
However, despite Musk's labeling of NPR as state-sponsored media, Twitter appeared Wednesday to not label the accounts of actual state-sponsored media in the U.S., including the military newspaper Stars & Stripes — controlled and run by the U.S. Army — and the Voice of America broadcast station, which provides English-speaking news in foreign countries.
Both of those organizations are directly controlled by the U.S. government, but neither were labeled as state-sponsored media by Twitter as of Wednesday afternoon.
The move may have an impact on NPR's reach on the platform. According to Twitter's public documentation, the site "will not recommend or amplify accounts or their Tweets with these labels to people."
That change, coupled with Musk's plan to lock the default "For You" feed of Twitter's home page to only paying verified accounts, could prevent NPR from reaching those who aren't already following the organization's account, and could limit their ability to be found in searches.
An email was sent by TEGNA to Twitter's press email for contact, but the only response was an auto-reply of a poop emoji.
It's the latest move in an ongoing feud Twitter's owner, Elon Musk, has with mainstream press outlets.
Days earlier, Twitter removed the verification badge from the New York Times account (although several affiliated accounts still retain their badges), in one of the few outward signs that Elon Musk was taking action on his often-promised repeal of "legacy" verification badges.
Musk is a vocal conservative, who repeatedly pushes back against negative coverage of him and his businesses publicly, often using Twitter as his platform of choice to voice his displeasure about something.