NPR traffic PLUMMETS after rage quitting Twitter

The outlet rage quit the platform in response to being labeled "state-affiliated media."

According to web analytics firm Similarweb, npr.org went from 111.5 million page visits in March to 104.2 million in May, a decrease of over seven million.

During that time, the website dropped four spots in the United States, landing at 143rd most popular.

As Similarweb reports, npr.org receives the bulk of its traffic, 45 percent, via direct access, with users searching explicitly for NPR making up another 42 percent of all traffic. Social media only accounted for 6.5 percent.

Despite the fact that NPR no longer has a presence on Twitter, 15 percent of its social media-generated traffic still came from the platform.

Twitter CEO Elon Musk, who oversaw the labeling of NPR as state-affiliated media, reacted to the statistics by saying, "They dig their own grave."

In April, NPR CEO John Lansing justified his decision to stop posting on Twitter by suggesting it would be a "disservice" to his employees to share their reporting "on a platform that is associating the federal charter for public media with an abandoning of editorial independence or standards."

"I would never have our content go anywhere that would risk our credibility," he added, noting that he "would need some time to understand whether Twitter can be trusted again."

According to NPR's website, it is a "private, nonprofit company with editorial independence" that "receives less than 1 percent of its $300 million annual budget from the federally funded Corporation for Public Broadcasting."

The decision to leave was made on April 12, and the very next day, the Public Broadcasting Service, PBS, followed suit, announcing that it, too, would stop tweeting in response to being labeled government-funded media.

"Public Broadcasting is one of America's best investments," PBS argued, pointing out that citizens, on average, pay around $1.40 per year to fund the service, which was rated "excellent or good taxpayer value" by seven out of ten voters.