Chinese Communist Party propagandists are calling on Elon Musk to remove the “state-affiliated media” labels from their Twitter accounts now that the billionaire has taken over the tech company.
Twitter agreed in May to sell the company for $44 billion to Musk, who plans to take it private, and the deal went through this week.
“I am the most popular current affairs commentator on Chinese social media,” Hu Xijin, the former editor-in-chief and party secretary for the Global Times, a Chinese state newspaper, tweeted Friday. “I hope Twitter, with Musk as its chief, will remove the label that does not match my status after my retirement, sincerely accept my speech, and respect the voice of Chinese society that I have brought.
Chen Weihua, listed as a columnist and EU bureau chief for China Daily, used that tweet to attack Twitter: “Really? By labeling Chinese media accounts but not labeling those in US or Europe with state funding? By imposing Twitter policy that discriminates against these Chinese accounts? Twitter has been used to serve US geopolitical purpose for years.
Twitter’s rules read: “China blocks access to Twitter for regular users. We believe that people benefit from additional context when interacting with Chinese government and state-affiliated accounts. … State-affiliated media is defined as outlets where the state exercises control over editorial content.”