France Télévisions President Delphine Ernotte Cunci has entered the fray over Twitter’s bungled move to label public broadcasters as “government-funded”, warning that the incident has wider implications for news and information.
“Twitter tried to label all public media in the world as state media and then as government-funded media or public-funded media. But who is Mr Musk to determine whether a media outlet is independent or not?” she said in an interview with French financial broadsheet Les Echos over the weekend.
“To see an American billionaire trying to play with our independence like this and define our public space is terrifying,” she added.
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Twitter Removes "Government-Funded Media" Labels From NPR, PBS, Others After Backlash
The Elon Musk-owned platform began labelling public broadcasters including NPR, PBS, the BBC, ABC, CBC and France Télévisions as “government-funded media” earlier this month.
It has since reversed the policy following protests from broadcasters worldwide that the label did not reflect their status or editorial independence, with some threatening to quit Twitter.
Ernotte Cunci said the incident raised wider and longer-term questions for public broadcasters worldwide and democracy.
“Twitter has retreated because the collective mobilization of public media, from Canada to Australia, has paid off,” she said.
“But that raises the question of the control of our information space. We cannot let American actors, tomorrow Chinese, play like sorcerer’s apprentices with our democracies,” she said.
She added the challenge of providing unbiased, balanced news coverage was growing as Artificial Intelligence played an increasingly bigger role in generating information.
“The possibilities opened up by artificial intelligence to generate false images and videos at an industrial pace are dizzying. In the Capernaum on the horizon, our regulated national media will be compasses,” she said.
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