BBC branded on Twitter as 'government funded'

BBC Twitter profile page showing 'publicly funded media' tag

Elon Musk provoked a scandal with the BBC after he called the broadcaster a «publicly funded organisation».

The national broadcaster, which is funded mainly by British households through license fees, is one of several news outlets agencies that received the label of a social network in the last week.

A BBC spokesperson said: «We are talking to Twitter to resolve this issue as soon as possible. The BBC has always been and remains independent. We are funded by the British public through license fees.”

The government is responsible for setting the license fee, but it is paid by households. In the 2021/2022 financial year, the license fee was £3.8 billion.

The BBC also generates revenue from some commercial activities.

The BBC World Service, which operates outside the UK and maintains a separate Twitter account, @BBCWorldService, receives some funding from the government.

Do you think the BBC license fee should be abolished? — Poll The Telegraph has reached out to Twitter for comment. However, in recent months, Mr. Musk has reduced the network's communication with the press — emails to her press office are now automatically answered with poop emojis.

This happened after a scandal broke out between Mr. Musk and the American. The NPR network after Musk changed NPR's label to «state media», effectively suggesting that the US government could influence its editorial policy and compare it to media such as the Kremlin-funded Russia Today.

Twitter states that state media are defined as «publications in which the state exercises control over editorial content through financial resources, direct or indirect political pressure, and/or control over production and distribution.»

According to NPR. , approximately 1% of its annual operating budget comes from government subsidies.

Twitter has since changed NPR's description to «Publicly funded media» after NPR said it would not tweet from the account until it contains this description. .

However, clicking on the 'publicly funded media' tag on the BBC's Twitter profile opens a link to the Twitter policy page on government accounts and government-related media.

Not defined. what Twitter considers «government-funded media» is currently being reported.

This comes after Musk stripped the New York Times of its blue tick last week, suggesting in a tweet that he personally ordered the removal of a symbol that verifies the identity of the account owner as a trusted source.

This came after the New York Times reported that it refused to pay up to $1,000 a month to keep the checkmark.