The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation announced it is ceasing activities on Twitter for the time being after getting labeled “government-funded media” by the social media company.
The move comes after U.S.-based National Public Radio called it quits on the site last week over the same designation.
"Twitter can be a powerful tool for our journalists to communicate with Canadians, but it undermines the accuracy and professionalism of the work they do to allow our independence to be falsely described in this way," said corporate spokesperson Leon Mar.
"Consequently, we will be pausing our activity on our corporate Twitter account and all CBC and Radio-Canada news-related accounts," the statement added.
Editor in chief Brodie Fenlon defended CBC's decision, citing its "impartial" and "independent" journalism.
"It is important to take a moment to assess what Twitter has done. That is why we have pressed pause today on our accounts. Our journalistic independence is the cornerstone of who we are as a public broadcaster. Suggesting otherwise is inaccurate and untrue," he said.
Our journalism is impartial and independent. To suggest otherwise is untrue. That is why we are pausing our activities on @Twitter. | Notre journalisme est impartial et indépendant. Prétendre le contraire est faux. C’est pourquoi nous suspendons nos activités sur @Twitter.
— CBC/Radio-Canada (@CBCRadioCanada) April 17, 2023
(2/3) CBC/Radio-Canada is publicly funded through a parliamentary appropriation that is voted upon by all Members of Parliament. Its editorial independence is protected in law in the Broadcasting Act, as we said in our statement from last week.
— CBC/Radio-Canada (@CBCRadioCanada) April 17, 2023
→ https://t.co/CJeRlk7uc7
Musk poked fun at CBC's objections to the label.
Canadian Broadcasting Corp said they’re “less than 70% government-funded”, so we corrected the label pic.twitter.com/lU1EWf76Zu
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 18, 2023
According to Twitter, "government-funded media is defined as outlets where the government provides some or all of the outlet's funding and may have varying degrees of government involvement over editorial content."