On Twitter, a number of media outlets, notably RT in Russia, no longer use the “state-funded” label.
Such adjustments took effect on Xinhua, the official news agency of China, overnight. In the past, the tags, especially from China and Russia, revealed which accounts were connected to state media or government figures.
These details were also extracted from the account of Russian propagandist Margarita Simonyan, who “thanked” Elon Musk, the creator of the social network, “from the bottom of my heart” for them.
NPR, PBS, and CBC, two American and Canadian stations, withdrew from Twitter lately after the social media platform applied new labels to the accounts designating them as “government-sponsored media.” They claimed the depiction was false and damaged their reputation as unbiased news sources.
Swedish public radio also announced the withdrawal from the social network due to the audience’s declining interest in it.
The Russian government’s Twitter accounts are once again accessible. Particularly, Russian official accounts, like Vladimir Putin’s page, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the Russian Embassy in the UK, show up at the top of some search results and in recommendations for other accounts to follow.
Recently, Twitter ceased taking action to censor state-owned Chinese and Russian media.
Russia and China-controlled media posts no longer bear the label “Stay informed.” Additionally, Twitter’s policy regarding official publications from these nations remained unchanged.
Observers on Twitter claim that publications about the Russian invasion of Ukraine are classified as disinformation, which limits their audience and engagement.
