Elon Musks Admits to NPR Reporter That ‘State-Affiliated’ Label ‘Might Not Be Accurate’ as Outlet Boycotts Twitter

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Twitter CEO Elon Musk told an NPR reporter in an email exchange that the “U.S. state-affiliated media” label he slapped on the media outlet “might not be accurate.”

Twitter added the label — a designation that puts the nonprofit in same category as state-controlled propaganda outlets like Russia’s RT and China’s Xinhua News — to NPR’s account earlier this week.

NPR is nothing like those outlets: It receives just 1% of its funding directly from the U.S. government and has editorial independence. (That independence explains why conservatives aren’t fond of NPR even when a Republican is in the White House: the government doesn’t control its programming).

The nonprofit protested the move by Twitter, which appeared to be inspired by a thread Musk read that criticized an NPR article.

NPR has since stopped posting to the social media platform entirely. In a statement to Mediaite, a spokesperson for the outlet said “We stopped tweeting from the main @NPR account after they attached that false label to it because each tweet we publish would carry it. We have paused tweeting until we hear back from Twitter on this.”

The spokesperson added that NPR updated its Twitter bio to read “NPR is an independent news organization committed to informing the public about the world around us. You can find us every other place you read the news.”

Musk spoke out about the decision for the first time on Thursday in an email exchange with an NPR journalist.

When NPR business reporter Bobby Allyn told Musk that NPR was public media, as opposed to a state-controlled outlet, the billionaire replied: “Well, then we should fix it.”

Allyn said Musk then asked him for the “breakdown of NPR annual funding,” which Allyn provided.

Musk explained his thinking on the move in another email to NPR: “The operating principle at new Twitter is simply fair and equal treatment, so if we label non-US accounts as govt, then we should do the same for US, but it sounds like that might not be accurate here.”

As Allyn noted, that concession is a reversal from Musk’s prior claim on Twitter that the designation of NPR as state-affiliated media “seems accurate.”

Musk reportedly concluded by telling Allyn that the label was still being evaluated.