Canadian state broadcaster CBC stops tweeting to protest Elon Musk for labeling their Twitter account as “69% government-funded.”
- On Sunday, Twitter labeled the CBC’s profile as “government-funded media”
- CBC and Radio Canada announced a boycott of the platform in protest
- Elon Musk has since updated the CBC’s label to: ‘69% government-funded’
Elon Musk’s latest Twitter spat has led Canada’s national broadcaster to boycott the platform after the Tesla billionaire added a tag that read “69% government-funded.”
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) and its sister network Radio Canada said they would stop tweeting on their official accounts on Monday in response to the label.
Musk’s label is almost accurate — the CBC received 65.2 percent of its $1.2 billion CAD ($900 million USD) — from the Canadian government in the past financial year.
But bosses there are angry. Musk has suggested they are not editorially independent, with the magnate previously calling for a similar boycott of NPR after violating its government funding.
A new label applied to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s Twitter profile labeled it as 69 percent publicly funded, leading to a boycott of the broadcaster
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau criticized Conservative Party of Canada leader Pierre Poilièvre, who initially wrote to Musk last week suggesting that the CBC should be funded by the government.
On Monday, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau criticized the move as well as Conservative Party of Canada leader Pierre Poilièvre, who initially wrote to Musk last week suggesting that the label should apply to the CBC.
Labels applied to Twitter profiles in recent years have become a point of contention — long before Musk took over the social media platform last year — but previously they were mostly associated with propaganda outlets in Russia and China.
Last week, NPR and PBS in the US also shut down Twitter after Musk labeled them as “government-funded media” and accused them of not being “editorially independent.”
Similarly, the BBC successfully lobbied to have its “government-funded tag” removed earlier this month and Musk finally obliged by replacing it with “government-funded media.”
The controversy in Canada began last week when de Poilièvre sent an open letter to Musk saying the label should be affixed to the CBC “in the interest of transparency.”
On Sunday, some CBC Twitter feeds began labeling “government-funded media.”
The CBC responded that it is not government funded, but that it is “government funded through a parliamentary appropriation voted on by all MPs.”
Critics said that was indeed the definition of government funding.
The board of the CBC determines how the funds received are spent. Then on Monday, the CBC said it would suspend its Twitter activities because of the labeling.
Our journalism is impartial and independent. To suggest otherwise is not true. That’s why we’re pausing our activities on @Twitter,” the CBC said.
The move caused Trudeau to attack his conservative opponent Poilièvre.
Trudeau told reporters that day, “Attacking this Canadian institution, attacking the culture and local content that is so important to so many Canadians, really reflects the values and the approach that Mr. Poilièvre puts forward.
In 2021-2022, the CBC received more than 1.2 billion Canadian dollars in government funding
A fact-checking “community note” tag clarified under Musk’s tweet that the company was funded approximately 66 percent by the government during 2021-2022
“To attack this institution that matters to so many Canadians, he runs to American billionaires, the tech giants they continue to defend,” he added.
Musk even responded to a clip of Trudeau speaking, saying, “What is he talking about and why is it being sponsored by Erik’s son?”
He was probably referring to the fact that behind Trudeau was branding for telecommunications company Ericsson.
Trudeau’s comments came during a conference announcing that the Canadian federal government was entering into a five-year, $470 million research and development partnership with Ericsson Canada.
Musk then also mocked the CBC by revising the label again.
“Canadian Broadcasting Corp said they are ‘less than 70% government funded,’ so we corrected the label,” Musk wrote on Twitter later Monday.
A fact-checking “community note” tag clarified under Musk’s tweet that the company was funded approximately 66 percent by the government during 2021-2022.
Last week, US broadcaster NPR said it would no longer post content on its 52 official Twitter feeds in protest of a “government-funded” label.
