Elon Musk reportedly threatened to reassign NPR’s Twitter account due to inactivity | Engadget
Twitter owner Elon Musk has reportedly emailed an NPR reporter to ask if the organization will return to the website and to suggest that the company could reassign his account if it doesn’t. According to NPR, Musk sent one of his reporters an unexpected email that reads, “So will NPR start posting to Twitter again, or should we reassign @NPR to another company?” If he recalls, the organization left Twitter in April after being labeled a “state-affiliated outlet” along with state outlets such as China’s. Xinhua News Agency and Russian RT.
Before NPR decided to ditch Twitter entirely, the social network changed the label to “government-funded media” after being called out. However, NPR said the updated label is still “inaccurate and misleading” as it is “a private, non-profit company with editorial independence.” The tag also caused PBS to leave the website. Twitter eventually decided to remove the “government-funded media” label entirely, even from state media, but neither NPR nor PBS have returned to the website.
Musk’s surprise email turned into an exchange with the executive, in which he reportedly wrote in one of his responses: “NPR is no longer labeled as government funded, so what’s the problem? ” And when asked who would take over the NPR Twitter account, he replied, “Radio Calabaza Nacional,” along with a couple of emojis. We’ve reached out to Twitter for a statement, but the company no longer has a communications team.
Low Twitter policy, the company said that users can simply log in once every 30 days to keep their account active. In addition, he said that accounts can be permanently deleted due to inactivity, but he “cannot release inactive usernames at this time.” It encourages people to find a variation if the username they want is “used by an account that appears to be inactive.” However, NPR said that in their email exchange, Musk told the organization that “Twitter’s policy is to recycle handles that are permanently inactive.” He apparently added: “The same policy applies to all accounts. There is no special treatment for NPR.” It is not clear if Twitter intends to update its official policy page for inactive accounts with that information, and whether you will implement security measures to protect prior users from spoofing.
