National Public Radio will stop posting to Twitter, across all of its regulatory accounts, the media outlet announced Wednesday. NPR will not delete its accounts from the Elon Musk-owned platform, but the nonprofit news organization will cease activity on Twitter.
“NPR regulatory accounts will no longer be active on Twitter because the platform is taking actions that undermine our credibility by falsely implying that we are not editorially independent.” Isabelle LaraNPR’s chief communications officer told Gizmodo in an emailed statement. She indicated that the accounts would remain intact (probably Protection against scammers) but confirmed that it is as good as dead anyway.
“We do not place our journalism on platforms that have shown an interest in undermining our credibility and the public’s understanding of our editorial independence,” said Lara.
The decision comes less than 10 days after Musk slapped A.J NPR’s “State Media” poster on Twitter account. label was Both executors denounced him And across others the press Inaccurate because NPR is considered editorially independent of the US government. NPR and its member stations do not receive Small portion from their annual budgets through federal, state, and local funding, but these grants do not necessarily amount to “affiliation” or influence.
After the backlash, Musk agreed he made a mistake Depends on Wikipedia alone for the source His media site Twitter labels. Sunday, He changed the name From “US media” to “government funded media”. For NPR, though, the change wasn’t enough, and the damage was done.
NPR’s primary official Twitter account stopped posting after April 4, until today when the outlet Share and pin a theme that defines other ways in which the public can access its content. The swansong account’s string of tweets amounts to NPR’s accounts, directing visitors to visit the news organization’s Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and TikTok accounts instead. It also promotes the outlet alerts, app, and Up First newsletter.
“We’re moving away from Twitter but not from our fans and communities. There are plenty of ways to stay connected and keep up with NPR’s news, music and cultural content,” Lara’s statement noted.
NPR isn’t the only news outlet facing controversy on Twitter in recent weeks. On April 1, the social site The New York Times verified rating removed. He was also known on Twitter as Musk Banning reputable journalists For unclear reasons.
musk outright contempt For mainstream press, and under his direction, Twitter is clearly targeting specific outlets. But what the billionaire might like to remember is that Twitter probably needs news sources a lot more than news sources need Twitter.
Although the social platform is popular with journalists, it is very young small size Traffic driver and revenue for most outlets, according to a recent Nieman Lab analysis. News sites have moved away from Twitter without much hesitation before, Fox News explains. previous long separator from the platform. On the contrary, Twitter needs content to host. If this leads to many major news outlets being fired, the quality of that content will likely suffer.
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