Yesterday, it was discovered that the main @BBC account on Twitter had been relabelled to say it was government-funded. Twitter has long been provided some context on select accounts, such as government officials, media and more but the most recent update has been to the main BBC account. Over the past few days, several media outlets such as NPR and Russia Today have been re-labelled on Twitter.
The BBC have denied that it is government-funded and has said it has reached out to Twitter for help on the matter. However, just how effective getting in touch with the company will be, remains to be seen. Since Elon’s takeover, staff numbers have been dropping and the company no longer runs an official press office. Instead, when you email the press office, it auto-responds with a poop emoji.
“We are speaking to Twitter to resolve this issue as soon as possible. The BBC is, and always has been, independent. We are funded by the British public through the licence fee.”
BBC
Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, SpaceX and other companies purchased Twitter in October 2022 for $44b and since, the company has made sweeping changes to staff, verification, budget cuts and more.
