[Global Times Comprehensive Report] Swedish National Radio announced its withdrawal from Twitter on the 18th local time, which is the first large European media to withdraw or suspend its Twitter account after many public media in North America. In the past week, the Twitter company controlled by billionaire Musk labeled many western media such as Voice of America, National Public Radio (NPR) and Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) as "government-sponsored media", which triggered fierce opposition from these media. However, many netizens ridiculed that the US government had forced the accounts of "rival countries" such as Russia to be labeled as "government media" on western social platforms, and now Twitter labels western media. "Isn’t this fair?" Previously, Twitter CEO Musk also revealed that the US government can completely control and read the private messages of Twitter users at will, but such news that is not conducive to the United States and the West is rarely reported by mainstream media.
Some China scholars told the Global Times on the 19th that the governments and media in the United States and other western countries, while flaunting the so-called "independence and freedom of the press", manipulated public opinion by various means to serve their own private interests. This "freedom of the press" is the "painted skin" of the American and western governments and their media.
"69% government-funded media"
According to Reuters, Swedish National Radio did not accuse Twitter of launching a new policy under the leadership of Musk, namely, labeling more western public broadcasters as "government-sponsored media". Gieringer, the station’s director in charge of social media operations, made an indifferent gesture, saying that the decision was made because the Swedish audience of the station had lost interest in Twitter. "Swedish National Radio no longer gives priority to its presence on Twitter," he said. The company still pays attention to its business on social platforms, but now it has decided to completely stop its account on Twitter, "because Twitter has changed and become less important to us."
However, the "European News" website said that the Swedish National Radio closed its Twitter account because of "concerns about fake news and hate speech". Gieringer did not hold back his accusations and complaints about Twitter. He said: "Of course, we have noticed the recent turmoil around the platform … … We believe that in the long run, this may affect Twitter’s handling of fake news, ‘ Water army ’ Robots, misinformation and hate speech. Of course, these factors also affect our decision to stop the account on the platform now. "
In the past week, Twitter has labeled VOA, National Public Radio (NPR), American Public Broadcasting Corporation (PBS), British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) and Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) as "government-sponsored media", which has aroused fierce criticism and opposition from these western media. The BBC argued that its funds mainly came from the TV viewing license fees paid by British families, and Twitter finally changed the label of the BBC to "publicly funded media". So far, this is the only western media that has successfully made Twitter modify the label of "government-sponsored media".
In this round of labeling struggle, the contest between Twitter and CBC is particularly fierce. On the 16th local time, CBC and its related accounts were tagged as "government-sponsored media" by Twitter. In this regard, CBC spokesman Omar said that Twitter wrongly described CBC’s "editorial independence", so the company will suspend the update of related accounts. He said that Twitter regards "government-sponsored media" as "the government may participate in defining the content of news reports to varying degrees", which is obviously not in line with the actual situation. CBC17 issued several tweets on the 17th, saying, "Our news is fair and independent. The opposite statement is untrue. This is why we suspend our activities on Twitter. " "CBC is funded by public funds voted by members of parliament. Its independence is protected by law. "
However, Twitter said that it is not groundless to label CBC as "government-sponsored media", "according to CBC2021 — According to the 2022 financial report data, the company received nearly $1.4 billion in funding from the government (accounting for 70% of its funds). " Musk immediately said that CBC’s "concerns have been resolved." He also attached a screenshot of CBC Twitter account marked "69% government-funded media" on the grounds that "CBC said they only received less than 70% government funding".
"Western media is being attacked by itself"?
Twitter’s move triggered fierce criticism from the western media. The British "Daily Mail" said that Musk was attacked for labeling the accounts of National Public Radio (NPR), American Public Broadcasting Company (PBS) and other western media as "government-sponsored media". Critics warned Twitter that "don’t misuse the concept, public funding (but not interfering with press freedom) is different from the state’s direct intervention in the operation of the media editorial department." According to the report, Freedom House in the United States said that the tag of "government-sponsored media" was "not fairly applied" on Twitter, and the media accounts of Turkey, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Qatar were not so marked, while the public media accounts of the United States, Britain and Canada were marked.
After the acquisition of Twitter, Musk always claimed to transform Twitter into a social platform for "seeking truth" and labeled Twitter accounts such as Voice of America and Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) as "government-sponsored media". "Musk fought with western media to find the truth", the Russian newspaper Kommersant reported on the 18th that western media such as CBC and National Public Radio have recently strongly opposed being labeled as "government-sponsored media" by Twitter, which was previously only used in the accounts of Russian and China media. In this regard, some Russian netizens said, why did the western media loudly applaud when the United States and the West labeled the Russian media as "government media"? This is actually "the anti-bite of the western media."
The mutual accusation between Twitter and western public media has aroused the debate among netizens in western countries. On Twitter, some netizens said, "I fully support transparency. These news organizations did accept government funds, and they should not ‘ Government-sponsored media ’ The label has objections. " "The snobbish conservative media doesn’t like it, but I have witnessed everything here." However, some netizens said, "‘ Government-sponsored media ’ The label is inaccurate, which does not explain which government funding it is, nor does it reflect other sources of funding for the media. " But most netizens think, "This is completely fair, and this is exactly what they deserve." Some netizens ridiculed that "does 69% funding mean only 69% publicity?" "Perfect action. The numbers are so accurate. "
This struggle has also become the content of western political infighting. Before Twitter tagged CBC, Canadian Conservative Party leader Poliyev accused CBC of favoring the government and the ruling party. On April 12, he called on Musk to label CBC "more accurately". He wrote in the tweet: "We must protect Canadians from false information and manipulation by CBC." Poliyev stressed that this is a fact that Canadians should know.
Lu Chuanying, secretary-general of the Center for International Governance of Cyberspace of Shanghai Institute of International Studies, said in an interview with the Global Times on the 19th that the debate on labeling between Twitter and western traditional media was mainly due to the increasingly diversified channels for the public to obtain information. Western media flaunt "independence and freedom of news", but actually regard news as a "fourth power" beyond the public. In fact, this is a struggle for the control power of public opinion discourse.
Li Haidong, a professor at the Institute of International Relations of the Foreign Affairs University, told the Global Times reporter that in western society, the influence of the media largely depends on people’s attention. In the information age, digital communication has become popular, and the withdrawal of western traditional media from Twitter is tantamount to self-isolation, and it is impossible for people to follow.
50% believe that American media deceive the public.
In fact, this competition also highlights the lower and lower trust of the western people in the media. According to Al Jazeera, a poll conducted by Gallup Polling Company in February this year showed that only 26% of Americans have a good impression of American media, the lowest level in the past five years, while 53% have a negative view. 50% of Americans believe that most news organizations in the United States are misleading and deceiving the public, and they are "intentional". Only 25% believe that these news organizations have no intention of misleading the public. The poll also found that 52% of Americans believe that American media "don’t care about the best interests of readers, viewers and listeners".
Not only traditional media, but also western social media and online media are not much better, and they are almost controlled by the US government and capital. At the end of last year, shortly after Musk acquired Twitter, it broke the news that all social media platforms cooperated with the US government to review the content, and they all deleted the relevant content under the clear instructions of the US federal agencies. Musk released Twitter’s previous documents showing that Twitter cooperated with the FBI, the CIA, the Pentagon and other government agencies to suppress information about the US elections, the Ukrainian situation and the COVID-19 epidemic. On April 16 this year, in an interview, Musk once again broke the news that the US government can read the private messages of all Twitter users at will. "The extent to which the US government can effectively control anything on Twitter surprised me."
Li Haidong said: Facts have proved that the setting of "freedom of the press" peddled by the United States and other western countries to the world is a complete lie. Western news has innate value bias and ideological bias. No matter external or internal, many reports are hard to be objective. Recently, the mainstream western media almost ignored the truth about the bombing of the "Beixi" natural gas pipeline, and the "poison train" incident in the United States was exposed by social media such as TikTok and was exposed by foreign media and networks for many days before it had to express its concern. Regardless of whether there is government funding or not, the western media has actually completely lost its independence and become a tool to serve the interests of a few people or mobilize public opinion when the United States and the West promote their foreign strategies.
Claire Daley, a member of the European Parliament from Ireland, recently lamented on Twitter that the western media were "corrupt and biased". Daley wrote: "We must admit that our mainstream media is not free at all."
[Global Times correspondent in the United States, Canada and South Korea Xiao Datao short room Liu Haisheng Global Times reporter Ding Yazhen Yu Xiang Liu Yupeng Chen Kang]