Twitter begins labelling ‘state-affiliated media’, including Chinese outlets
- The accounts of China Daily and Global Times are among the first to get new tag, along with Russia Today
- Labels are for outlets linked to governments of countries on UN Security Council, where state ‘exercises control over editorial content’, social media firm says
Twitter launched a crackdown on Chinese and Russian government-linked news outlets on Thursday, labelling sites including People’s Daily, China Daily and Global Times as “state-affiliated media” and preventing them from being recommended to users or otherwise amplified on the social media platform.
The new categorisation covers accounts in the United States, Britain, France, China and Russia – the five permanent United Nations Security Council members – but will in effect only apply to outlets from China and Russia, given the high degree of control that government bodies in those countries exert on editorial decisions through funding and other forms of pressure.
Jessica Herrera-Flanigan, a public policy executive at Twitter, said the goal of the initiative was to “further protect the public conversation in an election year”.
The new labels, which appear on both the homepages of targeted accounts and above every tweet posted by them, have also been added to editors and prominent reporters at the outlets.
Those include Global Times’ editor-in-chief, Hu Xijin, who uses the platform to share commentary on or insights into Beijing’s official position on international affairs, frequently regarding relations with Washington.