NPR Quits Twitter For Good, Accusing Platform of Trying to ‘Undermine Our Credibility’

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NPR announced it is quitting Twitter after a dispute with the social media platform over its editorial independence.

“NPR’s organizational accounts will no longer be active on Twitter because the platform is taking actions that undermine our credibility by falsely implying that we are not editorially independent,” the outlet said in a statement to Mediaite.

“We are not putting our journalism on platforms that have demonstrated an interest in undermining our credibility and the public’s understanding of our editorial independence,” the statement continued. “We are turning away from Twitter but not from our audiences and communities. There are plenty of ways to stay connected and keep up with NPR’s news, music, and cultural content.”

The dispute kicked off last week when Twitter CEO Elon Musk added a label to NPR’s account deeming it “U.S. state-affiliated media,” a designation that put the broadcaster in same category as state propaganda outlets like Russia’s RT.

Musk did not explain why he was adding the label to NPR, but the move came shortly after he replied to a tweet attacking the outlet as having a liberal bias.

NPR protested the label — arguing it is editorially independent and receives just 1% of its funding from the U.S. government — and said it would not be using Twitter until it was removed.

Musk later admitted in an interview with an NPR reporter that the label “might not be accurate” and eventually backtracked, instead adding a label to NPR deeming it “government funded.”

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