Twitter Changes Guidelines So It Can Label NPR As ‘State-Affiliated Media’

Twitter has updated its guidelines so that it can label NPR as a “state-affiliated media” company.

Twitter’s previous guidelines held “state-financed media organizations with editorial independence, like the BBC in the UK or NPR in the US for example, are not defined as state-affiliated media.”

Twitter appears to have reclassified NPR as “state-affiliated media” sometime Tuesday and then quickly updated its guidelines to justify the change.

“State-affiliated media is defined as outlets where the state exercises control over editorial content through financial resources, direct or indirect political pressures, and/or control over production and distribution. Accounts belonging to state-affiliated media entities, their editors-in-chief, and/or their prominent staff may be labeled,” the updated guidelines read. “State-financed media organizations with editorial independence, like the BBC in the UK for example, are not defined as state-affiliated media for the purposes of this policy.”