Amid backlash, Twitter changes NPR’s account to ‘government funded media’

Twitter and its billionaire owner, Elon Musk, have backed off a controversial description of NPR as “state-affiliated media,” relabeling the news organization’s social media account as “government funded.”

The change, quietly made by the San Francisco-based company late Saturday, follows complaints from NPR and others that Twitter’s designation of NPR’s account as “state-affiliated” last week was an effort by Musk to disparage the Washington-based news organization. The state-affiliated label has traditionally been used by Twitter to describe government-run propaganda outlets, such as Russia’s Sputnik and RT and the Chinese Communist Party’s People’s Daily.