Finally, Twitter removes the tag “State-affiliated media”
The label ‘State-affiliated media’ created controversy as soon as it arrived, more than a year ago. Some media, such as RT and Xinhua, dependent on Russian and Chinese government agencies, had been granted this status. At the same time, many public media around the globe had no such mention on their profile, without much noise. The most problematic did not concern the stigmatization of media accounts, but that of journalists who worked for this or that news site. When you are a French journalist and your Twitter account displays a message of this type, it amounts to putting you out of work everywhere else and many people were surprised at such zeal on the part of the blue bird.
A very controversial statement
But the controversy has swelled especially since public press organs such as France Television or the BBC were awarded the label ‘State-affiliated media’ a few days ago. And the oddly, well-meaning didn’t really appreciate it. It is however exactly the same thing: if Russia gives money to RT, France gives money to France 2.
Either we put this mention everywhere, or we don’t put it anywhere.
The mention disappears completely
So Musk decided and for a few days, this mention has completely disappeared from the social network. As the controversy took a new turn, with some media gradually leaving Twitter, Musk has just backtracked by permanently removing the ‘State-affiliated media’ tag. We are therefore done with this information, as much on the accounts of France Television or the BBC as on the profiles of RT and Xinhua.
Twitter spends its time reinventing itself
Another change on the blue bird network, after the appearance of the new certification rules last week. Since the takeover of Twitter by Musk, we have had the impression of constant instability with this platform. From one week to another, sometimes even from one day to another, the rules change, the functionalities too, giving the impression that the network is developing in an anarchic way, at least without direction.
Twitter: The social network removed the mentions “state-affiliated media” and “media financed by government funds” from several Western media accounts, from Russia, China and other countries found the#AFP pic.twitter.com/ASEAVnWKnu
– Agence France-Presse (@afpfr) April 21, 2023
Enough to make the evolution of Twitter difficult to follow and above all, to predict. If the removal of this mention for all media accounts helps to put everyone on an equal footing, the problem rather lies in a modification of the rule only a few days after its implementation.
