Twitter drops 'state-affiliated' labels from media accounts

Twitter removed "state-affiliated" and "government-funded" labels from media accounts, as per a review by AFP news agency on Friday.

According to AFP, the news agency looked at a number of prominent pages on the platform and saw that many of the top media organisations from Western countries, Russia, China, and other nations that had previously used either of those tags no longer had them.

Media portals like National Public Radio (NPR) and Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) lost their labels which is given by Twitter to imply a government involvement in editorial content, as per Reuters.

China's official Xinhua news agency and RT from Russia also lost the tags.

As per Twitter, State-affiliated media labels and Government labels are given to state-affiliated profiles to provide additional context about accounts that are controlled by certain state-affiliated media entities and individuals closely associated with those entities.Government labels apply to accounts heavily engaged in geopolitics and diplomacy from main countries where Twitter operates.

This comes after Twitter removed the blue checkmark verification from social media accounts which had not paid a monthly fee. Many high-profile accounts, including those of politicians and celebs, lost the blue tick.

It included Pope Francis, Bill Gates, Kim Kardashian, former US president Donald J. Trump, Lady Gaga.

However, many others retained their Blue ticks. For instance, Barack Obama, Taylor Swift, and Britney Spears, among others.

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Whether everyone who maintained their blue tick had paid for it was unclear. Before, only verified accounts of prominent figures including journalists, legislators, and well-known people could display the coveted blue tick symbol. A monthly membership plan was made available to anybody willing to pay for the Blue ticks.

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