CBC/Radio-Canada announced on Monday that it was ceasing its activities on Twitter after its English-language account was labeled “government-funded” by the social network.

In a tweet published Monday afternoon, the public broadcaster reiterated that its “journalism is unbiased and independent” and that “other claims are false.”

“As a result, we are ceasing our activity on Twitter,” CBC/Radio-Canada said.

Our journalism is impartial and independent. To claim otherwise is wrong. Therefore we pause our activities @twitter. | Our journalism is impartial and independent. To claim otherwise is wrong. For this reason we are stopping our activities @twitter.

— CBC/Radio Canada (@CBCRadioCanada) April 17, 2023

The public broadcaster therefore stopped publishing its articles on the social network shortly before 3 p.m. on Monday. In French, all accounts linked to Radio-Canada, including the news and sports accounts, as well as broadcasters ICI Première and ICI Musique, shared the official statement on the cessation of activity on billionaire Elon Musk’s social network.

In another tweet, Radio-Canada invited its subscribers to follow its accounts on other platforms including YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok.

“Twitter can be a very effective tool for journalists to communicate with Canadians, but by challenging our independence with this misleading label designed to mislead the public, this network is questioning the accuracy and professionalism of the work done by our journalists” , added CBC/Radio-Canada in a press release.

This “pause” in activity on Twitter only affects the accounts managed by the public broadcaster. “The personal and professional accounts of our employees, including our journalists, are unaffected,” CBC/Radio-Canada said.

On Sunday evening, Twitter identified the official CBC account as a “government-funded” medium. The leader of the Conservative Party, Pierre Poilievre, sent an official request to the social network last week.

Once the mention was added to its main account, CBC argued that “CBC/Radio-Canada is publicly funded through parliamentary funds voted on by all MPs.”

“Twitter’s policy defines state-funded media as instances where government ‘can intervene to varying degrees in editorial content,’ which CBC/Radio-Canada clearly does not do,” it said. -on added.

In an email to The Canadian Press, Leon Mar, corporate spokesman for CBC/Radio-Canada, said Twitter did not consult with the public broadcaster before using the mention. A letter was therefore sent to Twitter asking it to reconsider its decision.

As of Monday afternoon, only CBC’s main account had received the mention. His other reports, including those from Radio-Canada, and his knowledge of French were unaffected.

Twitter has already tagged the accounts of British public broadcaster BBC and American public radio station National Public Radio with the controversial label. The latter has also denounced this measure as an attack on its integrity in terms of editorial independence and decided to no longer be active on the social network.

On its website, Twitter defines “state-funded media” as “media whose editorial content is controlled by that state through financial means, direct or indirect political pressure, and/or control over production and distribution.”

In 2021–22, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation received more than $1.2 billion in public funding, up from about $1.4 billion the previous year.

However, the public broadcaster considers that it does not meet Twitter’s criteria as it is publicly funded by a parliamentary amount decided by all MPs and its editorial independence is protected by broadcasting.

Twitter also distinguishes between “state-sponsored media” and “state-affiliated media”. The social network describes media in the second category as “media whose editorial content is controlled by this state through financial means, direct or indirect political pressure and/or control over production and distribution”.

Twitter responded to numerous questions from media outlets – including The Canadian Press – about the label with an automatically generated email with a feces emoji.