After a month-long hiatus over Twitter’s labelling of them as “government-funded media,” CBC has announced it was returning to the platform in a recent blog post.
According to CBC News editor-in-chief Brodie Fenlon, several of the public broadcaster’s affiliated accounts will be active on Twitter again. However, he added that the organization would “significantly reduce” its presence on the social media platform.
“Today, we will resume some activity on a handful of umbrella Twitter accounts, including @CBCNews, but we will significantly reduce our overall Twitter footprint and continue to assess the platform against our strategy,” wrote Fenlon.
Twitter CEO Elon Musk reacted to the news with a meme of himself in the film “Brokeback Mountain” with the CBC logo and a caption that said: “I wish I knew how to quit you.”
Musk labelled the CBC and other publicly-funded media, such as the BBC and National Public Radio, as “government-funded media” on their accounts in April.
The move provoked a string of criticisms from the legacy media and journalistic groups who called the label unfair and claimed that it cast doubt on the independence of said media.
“The problem is that Twitter’s posted definition of “government-funded” referred to outlets that “may have varying degrees of government involvement over editorial content.” And Musk has on several occasions linked government funding to state influence and media bias,” claimed Fenlon.
The CBC receives $1.2 billion annually in taxpayer funding from the federal government – a majority of the company’s revenue.
“No government has involvement or influence on the journalism of CBC News and Radio-Canada Info, our French-language service,” added Fenlon.
In contrast, the CBC has decided to continue its presence on the social media platform TikTok, despite bans preventing federal workers from using the application over fears that the Chinese government has influence over the company.
