Minnesota Public Radio to quit Twitter

Minnesota Public Radio has joined the growing number of public radio stations that are quitting Twitter.

The departures come after the social media platform labeled National Public Radio as "state-affiliated media," and later amended it to "government-funded media."

"After much discussion, we concluded that continued use of the social media platform Twitter by our organization was contrary to our mission and core values," Jean Taylor, CEO of MPR's parent company, American Public Media Group, wrote in an email sent to members on Friday evening. "Instead of being a neutral and efficient channel for serving the public, Twitter is now actively aiming to undermine the integrity of public media organizations like ours."

She added that the labels Twitter used to describe NPR inaccurately describes what public media is and does.

"That inaccuracy undermines the value of what our employees do for people and their families: providing accurate, unbiased journalism and information about our state, our country and the world."

All of American Public Media's channels will stop posting and engaging on Twitter, effective immediately, she said. But she added that winding down use of the platform will take several weeks due to some of its contractual obligations.

On Friday evening, the @MPRNews account on Twitter posted a series of tweets, noting that MPR News is an "independent nonprofit news organization in service to the public" and pointing to other ways people can find its work, such as by downloading its app, subscribing to its newsletters and following it on other social media platforms.

NPR and the Public Broadcasting Service, which was also labeled by Twitter as "government-funded media," announced last week they would stop posting on Twitter.

NPR executives have noted it's a nonprofit group with editorial independence and receives only a very small fraction of its funding from government sources.

The exit by public broadcasting stations is only the latest controversy to befall Twitter since billionaire Elon Musk bought the site last year.