Elon Musk threatened to reassign the Twitter account from National Public Radio after it stopped tweeting and when it reported the threat, he responded with two words: ‘You suck.”
The bizarre feud started when Twitter slapped NPR with the label “state-affiliated media” in April. When some pointed out that the label appeared to contradict Twitter’s terms of service, the label was changed to “state-funded media.”
NPR responded by announcing that it would abandon its Twitter account in order to protest any labeling.
“NPR and our member stations are supported by millions of listeners who depend on us for the independent, fact-based journalism we provide,” wrote John Lansing, the CEO and president of NPR. “It is unacceptable for Twitter to label us this way. A vigorous, vibrant free press is essential to the health of our democracy.”
Musk appeared to acquiesce and removed the labels altogether.
Despite the concession, NPR has not tweeted on its account since April 4.
In a series of emails to NPR that it published early on Tuesday, Musk asked if he should reassign the account with 9 million followers to another person or company.
“So is NPR going to start posting on Twitter again, or should we reassign @NPR to another company?” he wrote, according to NPR.
“Our policy is to recycle handles that are definitively dormant,” Musk wrote in a different email. “Same policy applies to all accounts. No special treatment for NPR.”
NPR asked Musk what company would take over the Twitter account.
“National Pumpkin Radio,” he responded with a laughing emoji.
“NPR isn’t tagged as government-funded anymore, so what’s the beef?” he asked?
After the story was published, Musk responded by sending an email without a message in the body of the email but a short message in the subject line.
