Twitter puts 'government-funded media' tag on CBC account
Label the latest move by Twitter to stamp public broadcasters with designations
"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," according to Twitter.
National Public Radio in the U.S. announced earlier this month that it is leaving the platform after Twitter labelled its account as "state-affiliated media," saying that doing so undermines their credibility by "falsely implying that we are not editorially independent."
U.S. public broadcaster PBS followed suit, also leaving Twitter after it received the "government-funded" stamp.
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre recently called on Twitter CEO Elon Musk to add a "government-funded" label to accounts that promote "news-related" content from CBC.
Reacting to the label being implemented on Sunday, Poilievre tweeted that the CBC has been "officially exposed" as "Trudeau propaganda, not news."
The CBC is a Crown corporation, wholly owned by the state but operated at arm's length from government.
In a statement Sunday night, CBC corporate spokesperson Leon Mar emphasized the government does not influence CBC's editorial content.
"Twitter's own policy defines government-funded media as cases where the government 'may have varying degrees of government involvement over editorial content,' which is clearly not the case with CBC/Radio-Canada," Mar said.
"CBC/Radio-Canada is publicly funded through a parliamentary appropriation that is voted upon by all Members of Parliament. Its editorial independence is protected in law in the Broadcasting Act."
In its 2021-2022 annual report, the CBC reported government funding of $1.24 billion. It also reported $651 million in revenue, largely from advertising during the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games and the 2022 Beijing Olympic Games, which were held in the same fiscal year, and stronger demand for television advertising than the previous year. In the fiscal year 2020-2021, CBC reported $1.39 billion in government funding and $504 million in revenue.
Fundy Royal campaign targets middle class with focus on jobs
Fundy Royal voters have elected Conservatives all but 1 time in 28 elections over 101 years
CBC News · Posted: Oct 17, 2015 6:00 AM ADT
CBC pauses Twitter activity after being labelled 'government-funded media'
Latest move by Twitter to stamp public broadcasters with designations
"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," said corporate spokesperson Leon Mar.
"Consequently, we will be pausing our activity on our corporate Twitter account and all CBC and Radio-Canada news-related accounts."
The pause will also apply to all CBC Sports accounts, entertainment-related accounts — such as for CBC-TV and radio programs — and any regional accounts.
The announcement came as Twitter also labelled some media outlets in several countries as "state-affiliated" or "government-funded."
According to Twitter, "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."
Editor in chief Brodie Fenlon said the pause of CBC News accounts was necessary.
"It is important to take a moment to assess what Twitter has done. That is why we have pressed pause today on our accounts. Our journalistic independence is the cornerstone of who we are as a public broadcaster. Suggesting otherwise is inaccurate and untrue," he said.
Late Monday, Twitter CEO Elon Musk tweeted, "Their concern has been addressed," with the CBC label changed to "70% Government-funded Media." About an hour later, it changed again to "69% Government-funded Media," reflecting what Musk said was based on the CBC's government funding of "less than 70%."
NPR, BBC also labelled
National Public Radio in the U.S. announced earlier this month that it was leaving the platform after Twitter labelled its account as "state-affiliated media," saying that doing so undermines its credibility by "falsely implying that we are not editorially independent."
U.S. public broadcaster PBS followed suit, also leaving Twitter after it received the "government-funded" stamp.
The CBC is a Crown corporation, wholly owned by the state but operated at arm's length from government.
CBC News is governed by policies laid out in its Journalistic Standards and Practices, which states: "We are independent of all lobbies and of all political and economic influence... Public interest guides all our decisions."
In a statement Sunday night, Mar emphasized the government does not influence CBC's editorial content.
"Twitter's own policy defines government-funded media as cases where the government 'may have varying degrees of government involvement over editorial content,' which is clearly not the case with CBC/Radio-Canada," Mar said.
"CBC/Radio-Canada is publicly funded through a parliamentary appropriation that is voted upon by all Members of Parliament. Its editorial independence is protected in law in the Broadcasting Act."
Mar later said that Twitter did not consult with CBC before applying the label.
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre had recently called on Twitter CEO Elon Musk to add a "government-funded" label to accounts that promote "news-related" content from CBC.
Reacting to the label being implemented on Sunday, Poilievre tweeted that the CBC has been "officially exposed" as "Trudeau propaganda, not news."
In its 2021-22 annual report, the CBC reported government funding of $1.24 billion. It also reported $651 million in revenue, largely from advertising during the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games and the 2022 Beijing Olympic Games, which were held in the same fiscal year, and stronger demand for television advertising than the previous year. In the fiscal year 2020-21, CBC reported $1.39 billion in government funding and $504 million in revenue.
Australia's ABC News said Monday it had received a new label on Twitter, branding the broadcaster as "government-funded media." An ABC spokesperson said the news organization was "liaising with Twitter regarding the change."
Similarly, Twitter last week changed a label on the main account of the BBC, the U.K.'s public broadcaster, to "government-funded media."
The BBC disputed the change, saying it "is, and always has been, independent. We are funded by the British public through the licence fee."
In response, Twitter altered the label to "publicly-funded media."
In an interview with a BBC reporter, Musk said, "If we use the same words that the BBC uses to describe itself, that presumably would be OK… That seems to pass a reasonable test."
Fundy Royal campaign targets middle class with focus on jobs
Fundy Royal voters have elected Conservatives all but 1 time in 28 elections over 101 years
CBC News · Posted: Oct 17, 2015 6:00 AM ADT
Why we have paused our CBC News Twitter accounts
Editorial independence is a bedrock principle of CBC journalism
We use this editor's blog to explain our journalism and what's happening at CBC News. You can find more blogs here.
Editorial independence is a bedrock principle for any credible news organization. It's the beating heart of what we do each day in the news division of Canada's national public broadcaster.
We are beholden to no one.
We report without fear or favour.
We act only in the public interest.
Not only is CBC/Radio-Canada's editorial independence guaranteed under Canada's Broadcasting Act, but our journalism is subject to rigorous standards, to which we're held publicly accountable through an independent Ombudsman office.
While
CBC/Radio-Canada is publicly funded through a parliamentary
appropriation voted upon by all members of Parliament, the government
has no involvement in our editorial content or journalism. (@CBC/Twitter)
That is why the CBC objects to how Twitter has defined and applied the label of "government-funded media" to CBC's main corporate account — and to other public media organizations around the world over the past week.
It is why we have paused Twitter activity on our news and information accounts, mirroring a simultaneous halt to Twitter activity across CBC entertainment, sports, communications, corporate and Radio-Canada accounts.
First, some background:
At the behest of Twitter CEO Elon Musk, the social media platform began to label public broadcasters as "state-affiliated," "government-funded" or "publicly funded." Public media targeted with these labels so far include the BBC, NPR, PBS, ABC (Australia), RNZ (New Zealand) and RTVE (Spain).
According to Twitter, "government-funded" 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."
CBC/Radio-Canada has made the case to Twitter that the label should be dropped or changed, as recently occurred with the BBC. (Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press)
While CBC/Radio-Canada is publicly funded through a parliamentary appropriation voted upon by all members of Parliament, the government has no — zero — involvement in our editorial content or journalism.
We cannot in good conscience continue to post fact-based news and information to Twitter, or engage on it, while a false impression of government involvement in our work is allowed to stand. As a news organization committed to truth, facts and accuracy, we cannot abide by a label that promotes disinformation about who we are and what we do.
CBC/Radio-Canada has made the case to Twitter that the label should be dropped or changed, as recently occurred with the BBC. Until then, the pause will remain in effect.
In the meantime, you can always find our journalism in many other places, including at CBC-TV, CBC Radio, CBCNews.ca, the free CBC News app, CBC Gem, CBC Listen, CBC News Explore, CBC News Network, the low bandwidth CBC Lite, our suite of newsletters and a variety of third-party platforms like YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok and more.
As for CBC News, we will stay focused on doing the kinds of stories that make a difference and get noticed, as we did this past week with more than 17 journalism awards from the Canadian Screen Awards and the Canadian Association of Journalists.
The independence of our journalism, the strength of our journalists, the impact of these stories — all of it matters. Anything that undermines this important work is something we can't support.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Twitter removes 'government-funded media' tags, blue checks
Organizations such as CBC noted Twitter's label defied its own definition of 'government-funded'
Twitter removed the "government-funded media" tag on public broadcasters, including the CBC, on Thursday without any explanation.
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 CBC president Catherine Tait had said Twitter applied the label without warning to the accounts of CBC/Radio-Canada, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (known as ABC), the Korean Broadcasting System (KBS) and Radio New Zealand (RNZ).
It noted that Twitter's own policy defines government-funded media as those that may have varying degrees of government involvement over editorial content.
WATCH / Explaining the objections of public broadcasters:
The task force said that was not the case here, where editorial independence is protected by law and enshrined in editorial policies.
It said the most accurate label would be "publicly funded media."
Twitter initially labelled several accounts with the British Broadcasting Corporation "government-funded media," but changed that to "publicly funded media" after the BBC objected.
The BBC is also a member of the Global Task Force, as well as France Télévisions, 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.
CBC raised similar objections, and Brodie Fenlon, editor-in-chief and executive director of programs and standards for CBC News, explained why the media organization was pausing activity on its Twitter accounts.
"We cannot in good conscience continue to post fact-based news and information to Twitter, or engage on it, while a false impression of government involvement in our work is allowed to stand," Fenlon wrote. "As a news organization committed to truth, facts and accuracy, we cannot abide by a label that promotes disinformation about who we are and what we do."
CBC spokesman Chuck Thompson said Friday the organization is "reviewing this latest development and will leave our [Twitter] accounts on pause before taking any next steps."
Twitter also dropped the "state-affiliated media" tag on the accounts of China's Xinhua News and Russia's RT.
Checks vanish
Tesla and SpaceX billionaire Elon Musk ushered in several changes after buying Twitter for $44 billion US last October.
One of the changes was to remove the blue checks from accounts that don't pay a monthly fee to keep them, and it appeared Twitter was beginning to make good on that promise Thursday.
Twitter had about 300,000 verified users under the original blue-check system it started about 14 years ago — many of them journalists, athletes and public figures. Along with shielding celebrities from impersonators, one of the main reasons for the check was to provide an extra tool to curb misinformation coming from accounts impersonating people.
WATCH | Trustworthiness of information an open question going forward:
High-profile users who lost their blue checks Thursday included Beyoncé, Pope Francis, BTS, Oprah Winfrey and former president Donald Trump.
One of Musk's first product moves after taking over Twitter was to launch a service granting blue checks to anyone willing to pay $8 US a month. But it was quickly inundated by impostor accounts, including those impersonating Nintendo, pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly and Musk's businesses Tesla and SpaceX, so Twitter had to temporarily suspend the service days after its launch.
The relaunched service costs $8 a month for web users and $11 a month for users of its iPhone or Android apps. The costs of keeping the marks ranges from a starting price of $1,000 monthly to verify an organization, plus $50 monthly for each affiliate or employee account. Twitter does not verify the individual accounts, as was the case with the previous blue check doled out during the platform's pre-Musk administration.
Subscribers are supposed to see fewer ads, be able to post longer videos and have their tweets featured more prominently.
Celebrity users, from basketball star LeBron James to author Stephen King and Star Trek's William Shatner, have balked at joining — although on Thursday, all three had blue checks, indicating that the account paid for verification.
Musk later tweeted he had personally paid for King, Shatner and James to retain their checks.
Uptake not expected to be revenue bonanza
It wasn't just celebrities and journalists who lost their blue checks Thursday. Many government agencies, nonprofits and public-service accounts around the world found themselves no longer verified, raising concerns that Twitter could lose its status as a platform for getting accurate, up-to-date information from authentic sources, including in emergencies.
While Twitter offers gold checks for "verified organizations" and grey checks for government organizations and their affiliates, it's not clear how the platform doles these out, and they were not seen Thursday on many previously verified agency and public service accounts.
The official Twitter account of the New York City government, which earlier had a blue check, tweeted on Thursday, "This is an authentic Twitter account representing the New York City Government This is the only account for @NYCGov run by New York City government" in an attempt to clear up confusion.
A newly created spoof account with 36 followers, also without a blue check, disagreed: "No, you're not. THIS account is the only authentic Twitter account representing and run by the New York City Government."
Fewer than five per cent of legacy verified accounts appear to have paid to join Twitter Blue as of Thursday, according to an analysis by Travis Brown, a Berlin-based developer of software for tracking social media.
Digital intelligence platform Similarweb analyzed how many people signed up for Twitter Blue on their desktop computers and only detected 116,000 confirmed sign-ups last month, which at $8 or $11 per month does not represent a major revenue stream. The analysis, however, did not count accounts bought via mobile apps.
With files from CBC News and the Associated Press
No comments:
Post a Comment