Twitter drops labels on major news accounts

Many high-profile Twitter media accounts have lost their labels describing their affiliations or funding models, following major changes on the social media platform.

On Friday, several media outlets that previously had tags such as “government funded” no longer displayed them.

The BBC, Russia’s RT and NPR in the US are among the accounts affected.

It follows a row between Twitter and several media outlets over how their accounts are described.

A number of news organisations, including US public broadcaster NPR and Canada’s CBC, have suspended activity on Twitter after they were recently given “government funded” labels. They said the description was inaccurate and undermined their credibility as independent news organisations.

The BBC also complained last week after it was given a “government funded” instead of “publicly funded” media label.

Twitter owner Elon Musk eventually amended it, saying his social media platform was “trying to be accurate”.

But on Friday the “publicly funded” label also disappeared from the BBC’s Twitter profile.

And labels indicating the origins of the funding behind major organisations like China’s official Xinhua news agency or RT from Russia have also been removed.

They were originally introduced to highlight which accounts were linked to state media or government officials, especially from China and Russia.

Other changes have taken place on the social media platform overnight.

Twitter users who don’t pay a monthly subscription have now lost their blue tick verification mark – including Beyoncé, Donald Trump and Cristiano Ronaldo.

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