Twitter puts 'government-funded media' tag on CBC account
Label the latest move by Twitter to stamp public broadcasters with designations
CBC News · Posted: Apr 16, 2023 9:14 PM EDT | Last Updated: 1 hour ago
A screen capture shows the @CBC Twitter account featuring a 'government-funded media' label. (@CBC/Twitter)
Twitter has put a "government-funded media" label on CBC's account in what is the latest move by the social media company 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.
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, 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.
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."
Last week, Twitter 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."