The exit caps a week-long row over Twitter's decision to label National Public Radio as a "state-affiliated media," branding it the same way as it does as major media outlets in authoritarian countries such as Russia or China.
Highly-respected in the United States, NPR had already suspended tweets from its main account as it waited for Twitter to change course, which it did only by modifying its label for NPR to "government-funded media," a tag it also applied to Britain's BBC.
In a short statement, NPR said all its organizational accounts "will no longer be active on Twitter because the platform is taking actions that undermine our credibility by falsely implying that we are not editorially independent."
It added that "there are plenty of ways to stay connected and keep up with NPR's news, music, and cultural content," urging users to other platforms, which it linked to in a final tweet.
Musk has expressed deep disdain for news media for years and recently installed an automatic response of a poop emoji to emailed inquiries from journalists.
"Defund @NPR," Musk tweeted Wednesday afternoon, referencing the activist movement to "defund the police."
News organizations have struggled to wean themselves from the platform, which remains a main communication exchange for celebrities, politicians and pundits.
A spokeswoman for NPR told AFP that its journalists, as well as its affiliate radio stations "will be able to decide on their own if they want to stay on the platform."
NPR's departure came hours after Musk indicated in a BBC interview on Tuesday that the label decision was a mistake and that he would consider changing it to "publicly-funded."
He also addressed Twitter's controversial move to strip the New York Times of its blue verified check mark after the company refused to pay to keep it.
From April 20, any legacy verified accounts on Twitter -- which were established as authentic under the company's old ownership -- will have to pay to subscribe to Twitter Blue.
One of the reasons for this, Musk said, was that he does not want Twitter to boost "some anointed class of journalists" who determine what constitutes news.
- 'Rollercoaster' -
In the interview, Musk said running the social media network has been "quite a rollercoaster" and acknowledged "many mistakes" along the way, six months after he bought the company for $44 billion.
Assessing his time in charge, Musk said it had been "a stressful situation over the last several months."
"Were there many mistakes made along the way? Of course," he said. "But all's well that ends well. I feel like we're headed to a good place."
He said the company was now "roughly breaking even" thanks in part to the crushing round of layoffs that slashed the payroll to 1,500 staff from 7,000 before the sale.
He however pushed back at reports and studies that misinformation and hateful content were seeing a resurgence on the site since his takeover.
"You said you see more hateful content, but you can't even name a single one," Musk said. "You just lied!"
Upholding his image as a hard-charging workaholic who sacrifices his personal life for his job, Musk said he often slept on a couch at Twitter headquarters.
When pushed on who was Twitter's new CEO after he pledged to find someone to fill the role, he named his dog, Floki.
Twitter ad revenue to plummet 28% in 2023: forecast
San Francisco (AFP) April 11, 2023 - Twitter's income from advertising will fall by 28 percent in 2023, a closely watched forecast said Tuesday, as the platform struggles under the ownership of Elon Musk.
Analysts at Insider Intelligence said they were slashing an earlier worldwide revenue estimate of $4.74 billion by more than a third to $2.98 billion as trust in the platform deteriorates.
"The biggest problem with Twitter's ad business is that advertisers don't trust Musk," said Jasmine Enberg, principal analyst at Insider Intelligence.
"Twitter needs to unravel Musk's personal brand from the company's corporate image to regain advertiser trust and bring back ad dollars," she added.
Musk's tumultuous takeover of Twitter has already seen several major advertisers suspend their activity on the platform after the Tesla tycoon loosened the reins on content moderation and laid off over half of a 7,000 strong workforce.
According to research firm Pathmatics, in January fourteen of the top 30 advertisers on Twitter stopped advertising on the platform since Musk took charge on October 27.
Insider Intelligence noted that Musk's efforts to build up a subscription service "won't make up for the lost ad revenue."
Musk's leadership has also cooled Twitter's remaining users, with Insider Intelligence forecasting a two minute drop in time spent on the platform to 34 minutes per day -- TikTok's users stay on the app for almost an hour.
Insider Intelligence said the drop in usage was due to the proliferation of hateful content and technical glitches on the platform, as well as a failure to expand into social video and pose a challenge to TikTok.
"Twitter engagement is still heavily dependent on the news cycle," said Engberg. "The takeover saga caused a spike in time spent in 2022 that has now dissipated, as users have lost interest in Musk's antics."
Musk is set to speak at a major marketing conference in Miami on April 18 in a likely effort to woo back major advertisers to Twitter.
Musk bought Twitter for $44 billion, though he has since written down the company's value to half that.
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