A man leaves the CBC building in Toronto on Wednesday, April 4, 2012. One of CBC's Twitter accounts now has a label which describes the broadcaster as "Government-funded Media.'' THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette
TORONTO – CBC/Radio-Canada says it is “pausing” its use of Twitter, a day after its main account was labelled “government-funded media” by the social media platform.
In a tweet announcing the pause, the public broadcaster says its journalism is impartial and independent and to suggest otherwise is untrue.
CBC has not tweeted from its main account since last week, when the new label pushed for by Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre was applied.
Twitter’s policies say governments have varying degrees of editorial involvement with accounts labelled as government-funded, but a Sunday statement from CBC media relations director Leon Mar says CBC does not meet those criteria.
CBC is publicly funded through a parliamentary appropriation that is voted upon by all MPs, and its editorial independence is protected in law in the Broadcasting Act.
Twitter responded to multiple requests for comment about why the label was applied and whether it would be removed or changed with an auto-generated email bearing a poop emoji.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 17, 2023.
