Moscow: The BBC is currently negotiating with Twitter to resolve “as soon as possible” the removal of the “government funded media” label from the social network, the CNN broadcaster reported.
The BBC’s Twitter account, which has 2.2 million followers is currently labeled as “government funded media,” unlike other BBC Twitter accounts, including BBC News (World) with almost 40 million followers and BBC Breaking News with over 51 million followers, which are not labeled as such. According to CNN, Twitter defines state media as media in which the state exercises control over editorial content through financial resources, direct or indirect political pressure, as well as control over production and distribution.
“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 licence fee,” the BBC told CNN on Sunday.
Meanwhile, in March, the UK government allocated 20 million pounds ($25 million) to the BBC as part of the refresh of the Integrated Review to support English-language broadcasting and counter disinformation against the backdrop of the 2022 events, particularly the Ukrainian crisis.
In 2020, the Twitter administration reported that it had begun tagging media pages that it believed were under the control of the authorities, as well as the accounts of the authorities of permanent members of the UN Security Council, key government officials, including foreign ministers, ambassadors, official representatives and major diplomatic leaders. The Russian Foreign Ministry said that Twitter’s decision to label media outlets from Russia as state-affiliated is a manifestation of double standards and and a violation of democratic principles, adding that it considered “politicized and tendentious actions by US IT giants as an attempt to squeeze Russian media content from the international information space, reducing its quotability.”
