Elon Musk labels BBC Twitter handle as 'government-funded media'

British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) has been tagged as 'government funded media'  on its official Twitter handle. Elon Musk has started labeling various media outlets including the American Broadcaster NPR with the same label and RT has been labeled with the tag 'Russia state-affiliated media'.

BBC has released a post rejecting Twitter's new label and claims to be in talks with the Musk-owned company about the issue. NPR was earlier labeled as 'state-affiliated media' which was later converted to 'government funded media'. NPR has vowed to stop tweeting till Twitter fixes the label. 

In a statement BBC said, "The BBC is, and always has been, independent. We are funded by the British public through the licence fee."

BBC claims that viewers need to pay £159 annual licence fee - which is required by law to watch live TV broadcasts or live streaming in the UK. This amount, BBC claims is set by the government, but paid for by individual UK households.

BBC's other Twitter handles with even more subscribers don't have the new tag. The BBC news and BBC sports pages don't show any label for now. 

Twitter's Definition of State-Affiliated Media

When you click on any of the labels, you'll be taken to Twitter's support page for labels. According to Twitter 'State-affiliated media' is defined as outlets where the state exercises control over editorial content through financial resources, direct or indirect political pressures, and/or control over production and distribution.

Twitter claims that accounts belonging to state-affiliated media entities, their editors-in-chief, and/or their prominent staff may be labeled. Twitter claims that it will also add labels to Tweets that share links to state-affiliated media websites.

However, there's no description for 'Government Funded Media' label on the page. 

Also read: BBC I-T survey: Chinese media extends support to India, says UK channel a 'propaganda machine for West'

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