The British newspaper justified its decision by pointing out that the content of the platform includes far-right conspiracy theories and racist content
Britain’s Guardian newspaper announced today that it will no longer publish content from its official accounts on Elon Musk’s social media platform, X (formerly Twitter), citing “the often disturbing content promoted or found on the platform”.
As the newspaper states in its article, “the platform’s coverage of the US presidential election crystallized long-standing concerns about its content.” In a statement to its readers, the news organization emphasized that it considers the disadvantages of our presence at X now outweigh the advantages. “We wanted to inform readers that we will no longer be posting to any official Guardian account on social networking site X,” the newspaper said.
The Guardian has more than 80 accounts on X with around 27 million followers. The British newspaper said the platform’s content includes far-right conspiracy theories and racist content. “This has been something we have considered for some time, given the often disturbing content promoted or found on the platform, including far-right conspiracy theories and racism,” it said. At the same time he emphasized: “The campaign for the US presidential election has only served to highlight 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 his influence to to shape the content of the political dialogue”.
Anti-hate speech campaign groups and the EU have criticized Musk, the world’s richest man, over the standards he has set for content on the platform since he bought it for $44 billion in 2022. A self-described “determinist of free speech ,” the Tesla CEO brought back banned accounts, including those of conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, misogynistic influencer Andrew Tate and British far-right activist Tommy Robinson.
The Guardian emphasized that X users will still be able to share newspaper articles on the platform. Journalists will also be able to continue using the platform for news gathering purposes. Although official Guardian accounts are being deleted from X, there will be no restrictions on reporters using the site beyond the organisation’s existing social media guidelines. “Social media can be an important tool for news organizations and help us reach new audiences, but, at this point, X now plays a reduced role in promoting our work. Our journalism is available and open to everyone on our website and we would prefer people to come to theguardian.com website and support our work there,” the newspaper underlined.
Last year, the American public broadcaster (NPR) stopped publishing content on X after the platform branded it a “state media outlet”. PBS, the US public television network, also suspended the use of X for the same reason. This month, the Berlin Film Festival said it was stopping using X, without giving an official reason, while last month North Wales Police said it stopped using Musk’s platform because “it was no longer consistent with our values”.
In August, the Royal National Orthopedic Hospital said it was pulling out of X, citing an “increased volume of hate speech and abusive comments” on the platform.
