‘69% government funded’: Elon Musk’s Twitter war with Canada’s CBC explained

Elon Musk had a field day at the office with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) by adding a ‘69% government funded’ label on their Twitter account.  Following this, the CBC and Radio Canada will stop tweeting from their official accounts today. This comes just a week after NPR and PBS in the United States left Twitter after Musk labeled them as ‘government funded’.

The CBC did receive most of its funding from the Canadian government last year. However, its leaders are upset with Musk’s implication that they are not independent. The Canadian Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, has criticized Elon Musk’s label. He also called out the leader of the Conservative Party, Pierre Poilievre, who first suggested that the label should apply to the CBC.

Exploring the Twitter feud between CEO Elon Musk and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation

Last week, Pierre Poilievre wrote a letter to Elon Musk, suggesting that the label ‘government-funded media’ should apply to the CBC. Then on Sunday, some CBC Twitter feeds started showing the label. 

The CBC responded by saying that it is publicly funded through a parliamentary appropriation, not government-funded. Critics disagreed with this. The CBC board of directors decides how to use the funding it receives. On Monday, the CBC announced it would stop tweeting due to the labeling. 

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

Elon Musk responded by revising the label again and changing it to 69% with a subtle sexual joke. He tweeted that the CBC had said they were ‘less than 70% government-funded,’ and so he corrected the label. A fact check has revealed that the corporation was around 66% government-funded for the 2021-2022 period.

What does the ‘government funded’ label mean on Twitter?

In recent years, Twitter labels have caused disagreements, mostly associated with propaganda outlets in Russia and China. Last week, NPR and PBS in the US also quit Twitter after Elon Musk called them ‘government-funded media’ and said they lacked editorial independence. 

US broadcaster NPR said it would no longer post content on Twitter in protest against the ‘government-funded’ label. The BBC successfully campaigned to have its ‘government-funded tag’ removed earlier this month. Musk replaced it with ‘publicly-funded media’.

CBC gets $1.2 billion per year from the Canadian gov (70% of its funding)@elonmusk, can you add a label? pic.twitter.com/AvATWMM62x

— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) April 9, 2023

Last year, a former CBC staff member accused the organization of being biased towards progressive social justice issues and reporting dishonestly in favor of left-wing causes.

CBC’s response to the Elon Musk controversy on Twitter

Leon Mar, a CBC spokesperson, announced  that Twitter undermines the accuracy and professionalism of their journalists’ work by falsely describing their independence. As a result, CBC will pause all of their Twitter accounts, including news-related accounts. 

According to CBC, it is publicly funded through a parliamentary appropriation voted upon by all Canada MPs, and its editorial independence is legally protected by the Broadcasting Act.

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