Musk threatens to reassign broadcaster's Twitter account

Elon Musk. Image: Daniel Oberhaus, 2018

Twitter chief Elon Musk has “threatened” to reassign National Public Radio’s Twitter account to another company, the US-based broadcaster said.

Musk suggested that he would reassign the network’s main account, under the @NPR handle, to another organisation or person, NPR said.

NPR stopped posting content to its 52 official Twitter feeds last month in protest against a Twitter designation that implied government involvement in its editorial content.

So, is NPR going to start posting on Twitter again, or should we reassign @NPR to another company?

Musk, in an e-mail to an NPR reporter, asked about its engagement with Twitter, the public broadcaster said.

“So, is NPR going to start posting on Twitter again, or should we reassign @NPR to another company?” NPR quoted Musk as saying.

“Our policy is to recycle handles that are definitively dormant,” he said in another e-mail. “Same policy applies to all accounts. No special treatment for NPR.”

NPR and Twitter did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

According to Twitter’s policy, users should log into their account at least once every 30 days to avoid permanent removal due to prolonged inactivity.

PBS and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation followed NPR and stopped posting on Twitter following similar labelling.