Elon Musk may also have taken on a quest to clean up the allegedly biased global mainstream media scene by acquiring Twitter. Most recently, Twitter awarded government-supported media with the label “Government Funded Media”. Most recently the British BBC received this label on its primary Twitter account @BBC. BBC is objecting this labeling on its primary Twitter account and has contacted Twitter to resolve the issue “as soon as possible.”
“The BBC is, and always has been, independent. We are funded by the British public through the licence fee,” it said. The level of the £159 ($197) annual license fee, required by law to watch live TV broadcasts or live streaming in the UK, is set by the government but paid for by individual UK households. While the @BBC account, which has 2.2m followers, has been given the label, much larger accounts associated with the BBC‘s news and sport output are not currently described similarly.
The BBC contacted Twitter after the designation was attached to the main @BBC account. The label links through to a page on Twitter’s help center that says “state-affiliated media” are outlets where the government “exercises control over editorial content” in various ways.
Elon Musk believed the BBC was among the “least biased” outlets.
