Sweden's public broadcaster Sveriges Radio to go silent on Twitter

Sweden's public radio Sveriges Radio (SR) is the latest to quit Twitter as it announced Tuesday that it was ceasing its activities on the social media platform. SR's decision follows similar moves taken by US and Canadian public broadcasters.

"Sveriges Radio has for a long time de-prioritised its presence on Twitter and has now decided to stop being active on the platform altogether," it said in a blog post posted to its website.

"The audience has simply chosen other places to be. And thereforeSverigesRadionow chooses to deactivate or delete the last remaining accounts," Christian Gillinger, head of Social Media at SwedishRadio, said in the post.

The Swedish radio service noted that the social media network had "simply changed" and lost relevance for the broadcaster. Some of its accounts will also be removed from the platform and only the main account for the radio and its leading news programme Ekot will remain.

Earlier, US radio NPR and Canadian broadcaster CBC also quit Twitter after rows with the platform over labelling issues following the takeover by Elon Musk. The broadcasters had taken objection to the labels put on their Twitter accounts describing them as "government-funded". The term is usually used for major media outlets in authoritarian countries such as Russia or China.

However, in the case of SR, the broadcaster did not object to the label "publicly-funded media" added to its Ekot account since it says it fits the description of the media's funding.

Earlier, Sweden's public radio and TV were funded via a licence fee for owning a television, just like BBC in Britain, but the method was replaced by a special fee in 2019 collected by the country's tax authority.

On Monday, in a statement, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation/Radio-Canada said Twitter had added a "government-funded media" label to its account. This, the Canadian state broadcaster added, branded it similar to the major media outlets in countries such as Russia and China. "In the case of CBC/Radio-Canada this labelling is untrue and deceptive," the statement said.

NPR CEO John Lansing had said in an interview that he "would never have our content go anywhere that would risk our credibility."

Lansing added that there has been a degradation in the culture of Twitter where abusive content is rampant now, and this was one of the factors that contributed to NPR's decision to pull back.

(With inputs from agencies)

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