Elon Musk Issues Not-So-Subtle Threat To NPR For Not Tweeting

Twitter CEO Elon Musk has reportedly threatened to transfer NPR’s handle on the platform to another company, if the broadcaster doesn’t resume tweeting.

NPR pulled the plug on posting on its main @NPR account and 51 other feeds in April after the Musk-owned platform falsely labeled it as “state-affiliated media,” a description usually applied to state-owned media in dictatorships.

The label has since been removed but @NPR has not tweeted to its 8.8 million followers since Apr. 12.

In a series of emails sent to NPR business reporter Bobby Allyn, Musk reportedly asked: “So is NPR going to start posting on Twitter again, or should we reassign @NPR to another company?”

“Our policy is to recycle handles that are definitively dormant,” Musk reportedly added to Allyn in another message. “Same policy applies to all accounts. No special treatment for NPR.”

But, per Twitter’s “inactive account policy,” an account is not considered to be dormant until it hasn’t been logged in to for at least 30 days.

“Inactivity is based on logging in,” it states. So, not on posting.

It’s unclear if Musk plans to change the policy. He has already pushed through a raft of controversial reforms following his acquisition of the platform, such as the removal of blue check marks for verification.

Twitter co-founder and former CEO Jack Dorsey last week suggested Musk “should have walked away” from the $44 billion purchase while he could.