A Twitter storm has started involving the company’s CEO Elon Musk, and the BBC.
However, the organization has denied taking state money and its defenders claim that being funded by the British government differs from being funded by the British public. Twitter applied the label to the BBC’s main account earlier this week, after slapping US broadcaster NPR with a similar tag describing it as “US state-affiliated media.”
While Twitter previously reserved such labels for foreign media outlets – like RT and China’s CGTN, Musk said that applying it to nor “seems accurate.” NPR’s tag was changed to read “government-funded media” after an outcry from US liberals.
The BBC said this in response to the new tag….”we are speaking to Twitter to resolve this issue as soon as possible. The BBC is, and always has been, independent. We are funded by the British public through the license fee.” The BBC’s defenders pointed to the license fee as proof of the network’s independence. However, commenters pointed out that the license fee “is a government tax in all but name.”
