CBC 'pausing' use of Twitter after 'government-funded media' label added to account

Tara Deschamps, The Canadian PressTORONTO - CBC /Radio-Canada said it is “pausing” its use of Twitter, a day after its main account was labelled “government-funded media” by the social media platform. “Consequently, we will be pausing our activity on our corporate Twitter account and all CBC and Radio-Canada news-related accounts.”Mar added in an email to The Canadian Press that Twitter did not consult the public broadcaster before applying the label Sunday and thus, CBC has sent a letter to Twitter asking the company to re-examine the designation. Last week, National Public Radio (NPR) announced it would quit Twitter over the social media company labelling it “state-affiliated media,” a term often associated with outlets controlled by authoritarian regimes. Twitter later changed the label to “government-funded media” and began doling it out to other publishers including the BBC, which had previously been named as an exception to the “state-affiliated media” label. Winseck said Twitter's labelling of CBC 's account is “hugely problematic” because it doesn't capture some of the nuances of CBC 's funding and its editorial independence.