In an unprecedented move, Twitter has stripped funding labels from some of the world’s most renowned news outlets. The BBC, Russia’s RT, and NPR in the US were among the victims of the label purge.
The labels, which verified the funding sources of various news organizations, were removed after Twitter identified “suspicious activity” on their accounts. The social media giant declined to elaborate further but did confirm that the labels would not be reinstated until the suspicious behavior had been clarified.
The news has caused outrage among fans of the affected organizations, with many taking to social media to demand answers. Supporters of the BBC were particularly vocal, with one angry tweeter proclaiming “how dare Twitter accuse Auntie Beeb of nefarious funding practices! They’re practically the crown jewels of British broadcasting!”
Meanwhile, fans of Russian news outlet RT seemed more amused by the move, with one joking on Twitter that “now we’ll have to fund propaganda the old-fashioned way – by hacking into the White House’s email servers!”
NPR supporters, however, seemed more resigned to the situation, with one listener commenting “Well, I guess we’ll just have to go back to trusting our government-funded news sources instead. What could possibly go wrong?”
At present, it’s unclear how long the funding labels will remain stripped from the affected accounts or what ramifications this will have for their credibility. One thing is for sure, though – the world of news reporting has just gotten a whole lot more interesting!
