Swedish public broadcaster SR ceases activities on Twitter

Sweden's public radio Sveriges Radio (SR) announced Tuesday that it was ceasing its activities on social media network Twitter, following similar decisions by US and Canadian public broadcasters.

"Sveriges Radio has for a long time de-prioritised its presence on Twitter and has now decided to stop being active on the platform altogether," it said in a blog post posted to its website.

SR noted that the social media network had "simply changed" and lost relevance for the broadcaster, adding that some of its accounts would also be removed from the platform, keeping only the main account for the radio and its leading news programme Ekot.

The decision follows similar decisions by the US radio NPR and Canadian broadcaster CBC after rows with the platform following the takeover by Elon Musk.

The broadcasters objected to labels put on their Twitter accounts describing them as "government-funded," branding them the same way as it does major media outlets in authoritarian countries such as Russia or China.

In contrast, SR said that it did not object to the label of "publicly-funded media", which had been added to the Ekot account, as it deemed it to be an accurate description of the media's funding.

Sweden's public radio and TV used to be funded via a licence fee for owning a television -- similar to the BBC in Britain -- but it was replaced by a special fee in 2019 collected by the country's tax authority.

Since Musk bought Twitter, the company has relaxed the moderation of content on the network, letting back many users banned because of messages inciting hatred or spreading misinformation.

Musk also slashed Twitter's workforce from 7,500 to fewer than 2,000 employees.