Twitter has removed labels designating global media accounts as government-controlled or funded, allowing propaganda from China, Russia and other countries to be more widely seen and believed.
SAN FRANCISCO — The action came late Thursday, while many Twitter followers were distracted by the removal of hundreds of thousands of legacy blue check marks for verified public figures, and in the same week that Russia and China were revealed to have been operating“It’s clear that state actors are continuing to invest in influence operations,” said Lisa Kaplan, chief executive of Alethea Group, which tracks the spread of false narratives.
After publicly questioning why news from a government should be treated differently from posts from private companies or nonprofit groups, Musk slapped state affiliation labels this month on NPR, the British Broadcasting Corp and others with public funding but independent control of their content.The ensuing backlash, which included NPR dropping off Twitter, gave Musk an opening to drop all such labels, which former employees said Russia’s RT had been seeking since shortly after Musk took over.
Twitter has also ended its policy of not recommending state-backed media to users. That will help a wide range of such outlets, including those based in China, Russia and Iran, Twitter has also made it harder for researchers and academics to track influence operations by charging for access to a large number of tweets.
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