Elon Musk's social media network has also applied that new
label to the BBC, which is funded predominantly by British households paying a
license fee.
Britain's beloved national broadcaster has reached out to
Twitter for clarification, news reports said.
The change in how Twitter refers to Washington-based
National Public Radio happened quietly overnight Saturday and comes after the
network complained that the term "state-affiliated" was disparaging
and inaccurate.
Twitter last week branded NPR in the same way as
government-owned Chinese and Russian platforms.
In protest, NPR stopped tweeting. In its updated Twitter
bio, NPR's main account -- which has more than 8.8 million followers -- invited
users to "find us every other place where you read the news."
NPR CEO John Lansing said the decision by Twitter was
"unacceptable" and the radio's account has remained silent ever
since.
Other accounts run by NPR, such as its music and politics
handles, did not have the "state-affiliated" specification and have
continued to post tweets.
Musk's move against NPR came just days after Twitter
stripped The New York Times of its verified status on the platform, which like
NPR, is often accused of left-leaning bias, particularly by US conservatives.
According to Twitter policy, the decisions will deamplify
tweets from both companies, limiting their reach on a platform that remains a
major communication tool for media outlets, celebrities and officials.
Musk has for years expressed a deep disdain for the news
media and in recent weeks installed an automatic response of a poop emoji to
emails sent to the site's main press address.
But on Thursday, NPR said Musk had signalled in a series of
emails that the relabelling may not have been "accurate" and that Twitter
would look further into the matter.
"The operating principle at Twitter is simply fair and
equal treatment, so if we label non-US accounts as government, then we should
do the same for the US, but it sounds like that might not be accurate
here," Musk wrote to NPR.
According to NPR's website, the bulk of its budget comes
from fees paid by member stations throughout the United States, who are
themselves supported by individual donors and government funds.
NPR, one of America's most respected news outlets, told AFP
less than one percent of its operational budget comes from federal sources.