Twitter is no longer policing Russian and Chinese state-backed media

Twitter is no longer taking action to restrict access to state-controlled media in China and Russia, in violation of the social media platform’s own published regulations.

Twitter began designating official government and state-controlled media accounts in 2020 and preventing those accounts from showing up in search results. In an effort to encourage users to “Stay informed” and let them know that Russia or China had editorial control over the outlet’s reporting, the platform announced last year that it would also start flagging tweets that contained links to government-controlled websites like RT.com or the Global Times.

Although Twitter’s state-affiliated media policy still lists the measure as one method it is giving “extra context for accounts extensively engaged in geopolitics and diplomacy,” Semafor tests revealed that the “Keep informed” labels were no longer present. And when Semafor looked for state-affiliated publications like Izvestia, Xinhua, and the People’s Daily in China and Russia, their official accounts came up among the top results.

As Twitter searches for new revenue-generating strategies, the moves risk alienating advertisers. The blue verified check mark, which was previously only available to journalists, celebrities, and other public individuals, is now $8 per month, according to the business. Elon Musk, the CEO of Twitter, claimed last month that since he took charge, ad sales had decreased by 50%.

Wenhao Ma, a reporter for Voice of America, previously claimed that Twitter was no longer strictly enforcing its rules against state-affiliated media. Ma discovered that the platform had started pushing Chinese government-backed articles to users automatically through its algorithm-controlled For You page.

An automatic response with the poop emoji was provided in response to an email requesting comments from Twitter, which has closed down its communications division. When contacted for comment, Twitter’s vice president for trust and safety, Ella Irwin, did not immediately answer.

On Tuesday night, Twitter users began noticing that the site had added a “US state-affiliated media” label to the official account of National Public Radio. The social network  that it would not affix the label to outlets like “the BBC in the UK or NPR in the US,” because they maintain editorial independence. NPR’s name later disappeared from Twitter’s website.

Twitter’s content moderation systems have changed considerably with Musk in charge. He laid off large portions of the company’s trust and safety teams, and the former head of the department, Yoel Roth, resigned. The site struggled to combat problems like impersonation, and experts said that the amount of hate speech was skyrocketing.

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