The Guardian Will Stop Posting on “Toxic Media Platform” X
The Guardian will stop posting on X, formerly known as Twitter, the U.K. media group announced on Wednesday.
In a story posted Wednesday morning U.K. time, The Guardian said that it would stop posting to any of its official editorial accounts, as they “think that the benefits of being on X are now outweighed by the negatives and that resources could be better used promoting our journalism elsewhere.”
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Media publication the Press Gazette reports that The Guardian and Observer brands “operate more than 40 active X accounts, collectively boasting more than 20 million followers. Of those accounts, 13 are verified.”
The Guardian said it had been considering a move to stop posting on X for some time “given the often disturbing content promoted or found on the platform, including far-right conspiracy theories and racism.”
The media group added that, “the U.S. presidential election campaign served only to underline what we have considered for a long time: that X is a toxic media platform and that its owner, Elon Musk, has been able to use its influence to shape political discourse.”
The Guardian said that users on X will still be able to share the company’s articles on the platform, and that “the nature of live news reporting means we will still occasionally embed content from X within our article pages.”
Since Musk, a self-proclaimed free speech absolutist, completed his $44 billion acquisition of Twitter in October 2022, the company slashed its content moderation teams and the site has consequently seen an explosion in bots, racism, misogyny, harassment, scams, conspiracy theories, disinformation and pornography. The resultant free-for-all in content allowed on X has seen advertisers flee the company and revenues collapse. According to various reports, the social media platform is now worth just $9.4 billion.
X’s continued struggles have been a boon to rivals such as Bluesky, which reported that 1 million new users joined the platform in the last week, and media companies such as The Verge and The Information have started to post on the site more regularly.
It isn’t just media companies considering their future on X. On Nov. 4, the Berlin Film Festival has become the latest European A-list fest to exit the social media platform. In a statement, the Berlinale said it has “decided to say goodbye to X on Dec 31, 2024,” shifting its social media focus to other social media platforms. “Stay connected with all things Berlinale on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, and our website,” the post concluded.
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