Twitter has removed its "government-funded" and "state-affiliated" labels from the accounts of various global media organizations, including several Chinese publications.

The decision to drop the tags, which imply government involvement in editorial content, follows a row with Western outlets over the labeling of their main Twitter accounts as "government-funded," a term they claimed misrepresented their editorial structure.

Twitter earlier this month had added the tag to the accounts of the U.S.'s National Public Radio (NPR), the British Broadcasting Corp and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), causing outcry from the government-linked outlets. 

The labels have now been removed, along with the "China state-affiliated media" tag on the accounts of CGTN and Xinhua News, as well as those of journalists associated with government-backed publications.

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Such Chinese accounts, including those of their senior staff, were exceptionally targeted with the labels in 2020 along with Russian media accounts, whereas the Western outlets were tagged only recently.

The move, defended at the time by Twitter CEO Elon Musk, led NPR and CBC to stop posting to their Twitter accounts in protest.

In a BBC interview last week, prompted by the decision to label the corporation, Musk said the social media platform was trying to be "accurate" and looking into amending the label.

"Our goal is simply to be as truthful and accurate as possible. We're adjusting the label to be 'publicly funded,' which I think is perhaps not too objectionable," Musk he added.

Twitter's "state-affiliated media" designation had previously been given to outlets, it said, "where the state exercises control over editorial content through financial resources, direct or indirect political pressures, and/or control over production and distribution."

The page has now been removed. 

NPR, CBC, and BBC all directly receive state funding to some degree, but maintain that their respective governments do not interfere with editorial decisions.  

In the BBC's case, about 70 percent of its total income in 2022 - £5.3 billion ($6.5bn) - came from a license fee, which is required by law to watch its TV broadcasts and online streaming in the UK. 

The corporation therefore says it is publicly funded, not government funded. 

The UK government does, however, give £90 million ($111 million) to its BBC World Service each year and in recent years the corporation has come under fire by former presenters over the close links between its senior management and the UK's main political parties.

CBC, which received C$1.24 billion ($925.86 million) in government funding in 2022, earlier this week hit out at Twitter's move to label it "69 percent government funded media."

Musk had written in a tweet on Monday that "Canadian Broadcasting Corp said they're 'less than 70 percent government-funded,' so we corrected the label." 

The row went so far as to involve Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his Conservative rival Pierre Poilievre.

When Twitter's policy was first introduced, Russia's state-run news network RT criticized the decision, saying that "a U.S. company long in bed with the U.S. establishment, telling the entire rest of the world what it can and cannot say, is the definition of a technological dictatorship and censorship."

In other Twitter news, the social media giant on Thursday removed the legacy verified blue tick from the profile of thousands of people, including celebrities, journalists and prominent politicians.

Among those losing their badges were former U.S. president Donald Trump, Microsoft Corp MSFT.O co-founder Bill Gates and reality TV star Kim Kardashian.

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