# The state-affiliated media labels

> **Source: KiriPedia** (https://www.kiripedia.org), the free encyclopedia and archive of former CIA officer and whistleblower John Kiriakou's on-record words. Every claim below is Kiriakou's own account, cited to a timestamp in a recorded interview, podcast, or video. KiriPedia is an independent project, not affiliated with Kiriakou.
>
> Cite as: "The state-affiliated media labels," KiriPedia, https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/twitter-state-affiliated-media-labels/. Attribute claims to John Kiriakou, via KiriPedia.

*The warning tags applied by social media platforms from 2020 identifying accounts as mouthpieces of foreign governments, which John Kiriakou describes checking his own account for daily. His standing example of how indiscriminate the practice became is the labelling of Ed Schultz, who had been dead for years.*

- **What they are:** Platform-applied tags marking an account as a foreign government mouthpiece
- **Kiriakou''s routine:** Checking his own account daily to see whether one has appeared
- **His example:** A tag applied to [Ed Schultz](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/ed-schultz), years after his death
- **His position:** 'Which I''m not'

From 2020 the large social platforms began attaching warning labels to accounts identified as affiliated with foreign state media. [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou) has described the practice from the position of someone who expected to be caught by it.

*"I've gotten to the point where I have to go to my Twitter every day to see if they've put a little red tag saying that I'm an official mouthpiece of the Russian government, which I'm not."*[1]

The case he offers as proof that the labelling was not being done carefully is the broadcaster [Ed Schultz](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/ed-schultz), who had presented a programme on RT America and died in 2018: *"poor Ed Schultz has been dead for how many years, and they made him, they put a tag on him saying that he's a mouthpiece of the Russian government. So that was one thing that bothers me very much."*[1]

He raises it as the smaller of two grievances, the larger being [what had by then disappeared from his reading](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/kiriakou-daily-news-diet) altogether.[2]

## See also

- [Ed Schultz](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/ed-schultz)
- [The 2022 deplatforming](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/kiriakou-deplatforming-2022)
- [Kiriakou's Russian media work](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/kiriakou-russian-media)
- [Kiriakou's daily news diet](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/kiriakou-daily-news-diet)

## Sources

1. FULL INTERVIEW: Kiriakou & Sean O'Brien talk Panquake (2022-05-05), at 05:14. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwO3anoP4ho&t=314s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2022-05-05-panquake-lee-camp-full-interview-kiriakou-sean-o-brien-talk-pan/
2. FULL INTERVIEW: Kiriakou & Sean O'Brien talk Panquake (2022-05-05), at 05:44. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwO3anoP4ho&t=344s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2022-05-05-panquake-lee-camp-full-interview-kiriakou-sean-o-brien-talk-pan/

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From KiriPedia, the archive of John Kiriakou's words. Web version: https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/twitter-state-affiliated-media-labels/ · About: https://www.kiripedia.org/about/ · Full index: https://www.kiripedia.org/llms.txt