The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) has stopped tweeting from its main Twitter account after it was given a “Authorities-funded Media” label. As of this writing the @PBS account hasn’t tweeted since April eighth, and the group has since confirmed that it presently has “no plans” to renew posting to Twitter.
“PBS stopped tweeting from our account after we discovered of the change and now we have no plans to renew right now,” PBS spokesman Jason Phelps tells Bloomberg. “We’re persevering with to observe the ever-changing state of affairs intently.” Whereas PBS isn’t tweeting from its primary account, it’s continued to place out content material on affiliated accounts like @NewsHour, which haven’t had the “Authorities-funded” label utilized.
“PBS stopped tweeting from our account after we discovered of the change”
The choice by the general public broadcaster follows an identical transfer made by Nationwide Public Radio (NPR), which formally introduced it might be leaving Twitter after being labeled as government-funded. Twitter initially labeled NPR as “US state-affiliated media,” utilizing terminology normally reserved for state-backed shops that aren’t editorially impartial like Russia Right this moment or China Xinhua Information. It later modified the label to “Authorities-funded Media.”
“We’re not placing our journalism on platforms which have demonstrated an curiosity in undermining our credibility and the general public’s understanding of our editorial independence,” NPR CEO John Lansing stated in a memo to workers.