Elon Musk changes CBC's Twitter label the way a 13-year-old child would
CBC and Radio-Canada went on official hiatus from Twitter on Sunday after its main account on the platform was labelled as "government-funded media."
In response to the label, the publicly-funded broadcaster tweeted, "Our journalism is impartial and independent," on Monday, adding, "To suggest otherwise is untrue. That is why we are pausing our activities on @Twitter."
"CBC/Radio-Canada is publicly funded through a parliamentary appropriation that is voted upon by all Members of Parliament," tweeted the outlet. "Its editorial independence is protected in law in the Broadcasting Act, as we said in our statement from last week."
Our journalism is impartial and independent. To suggest otherwise is untrue. That is why we are pausing our activities on @Twitter. | Notre journalisme est impartial et indépendant. Prétendre le contraire est faux. C’est pourquoi nous suspendons nos activités sur @Twitter.
— CBC/Radio-Canada (@CBCRadioCanada) April 17, 2023
Twitter later updated the title to "publicly-funded media," but that was, somehow, not the end of this debacle.
Brash tycoon and general wealth hoarder Elon Musk — who completed his $44 billion buyout of the platform in 2022 — took things a step further in his public disagreement with the CBC on Monday night.
The CBC maintains that less than 70 per cent of its funding came from government coffers, a claim that Musk seems to have heard loud and clear.
In response, the right-wing billionaire changed the CBC's label on Twitter yet again, making light of the "less than 70 per cent" line by updating the CBC's bio and seizing the opportunity to show off his trademark lack of maturity.
Canadian Broadcasting Corp said they’re “less than 70% government-funded”, so we corrected the label pic.twitter.com/lU1EWf76Zu
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 18, 2023
The broadcaster's profile currently reads "69% Government-funded Media," in a cringy yet entirely par-for-the-course bedroom joke from the 51-year-old wealthy elite.
Oh shit that’s the sex number
— Justin Whang 🐙 (@JustinWhang) April 18, 2023
Elon's latest tinkering may not be going over too well at CBC HQ, but his legion of boosters and crypto bros seem to love the SpaceX and Tesla CEO's sense of humour.
Thank you for this correction Mr Musk! pic.twitter.com/p7U3KGVzLS
— Brock Pierson (@brockpierson) April 18, 2023
According to Twitter's guidelines, government-funded media are defined as outlets fully or partially funded by their governments and "may have varying degrees of government involvement over editorial content."
