CBC Earns ‘69% Government-Funded Media’ Label After Pausing Twitter

cbc 69 government funded

Looks like Canada’s public broadcaster has some issues with the definition of how it’s being funded.

The CBC Twitter account earned a “Government-funded Media” label yesterday and it rebuked that determination, despite having the majority of its annual $1.24 billion funding coming from taxpayers for 2021-2022.

On Monday morning, the CBC/Radio-Canada Twitter account announced it would be pausing its activities on the social network, seemingly a move made in disgust at its label.

“Our journalism is impartial and independent. To suggest otherwise is untrue. That is why we are pausing our activities on @Twitter. | Notre journalisme est impartial et indépendant. Prétendre le contraire est faux. C’est pourquoi nous suspendons nos activités sur @Twitter,” said the account, retweeted by its other account @CBC.
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cbc pausing twitter

When the Twitter account @TitterDaily said to Musk CBC argues 30% of its funding is not from public funds, the Twitter chief responded, “Just trying to be accurate. Would they be ok if we said 70% govt funded?”.

Musk then replied shortly after, “Their concern has been addressed,” sharing a screenshot showing the CBC is 70% “Government-funded Media”. When another used suggested 69% to “give them the benefit of the doubt”, Musk replied, “Good point, generosity is always the right move. 69% it is!”.

As it stands, the CBC Twitter account now shows that it is 69% ‘Government-funded Media’ and remains paused and dormant for now. The next-level trolling by Musk earned some funny replies by followers. Let’s be honest, the CBC is government funded, no?

“Canadian Broadcasting Corp said they’re “less than 70% government-funded”, so we corrected the label,” said Musk about 30 minutes ago.

Last week the U.S. NPR and PBS Twitter accounts received ‘Government-funded Media’ labels and both have since quit the social network in opposition to the move. The CBC says it is pausing its activities and it’s unclear if the broadcaster will quit for good like its U.S. counterparts.

The BBC had its Twitter account label changed from ‘government-funded media’ to ‘publicly-funded media’, after the British public broadcaster objected. Twitter and Musk later changed the label to ‘publicly-funded media’ instead.

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