The Guardian has announced that it is quitting Elon Musk’s social media platform X, and that the site’s coverage of the US presidential election had solidified its decision.
In an announcement to its readers, the news organisation, which has more than 80 accounts on X with roughly 27 million followers, said: “We wanted to let readers know that we will no longer post on any official Guardian editorial accounts on the social media site X.”
“This is something we have been considering for a while given the often disturbing content promoted or found on the platform, including far-right conspiracy theories and racism,” it said.
It added: “The US 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.”
Responding on Wednesday, Mr Musk, the world’s richest man, simply wrote: “They are irrelevant.”
The Guardian said X users would still be able to share its articles on the platform and that posts on X would occasionally be embedded in its work as part of its live news reporting.
The newspaper added that reporters would also be able to continue using the platform for news gathering purposes.
“Social media can be an important tool for news organisations and help us to reach new audiences but, at this point, X now plays a diminished role in promoting our work. Our journalism is available and open to all on our website and we would prefer people to come to theguardian.com and support our work there,” said the Guardian.
The newspaper has used the site for the last 17 years, with its decision to leave outlined in an internal email which told staff of plans to stop using the social network as it “becomes ever more toxic”.
“We know there are downsides to removing ourselves from X, but we think that on balance it’s the right course as the platform becomes ever more toxic,” the email to staff said, the Telegraph reports.
“Accounts will be mothballed, with boilerplate text added to profiles and a link to an explainer.”
The email continued: “This is something we have been thinking about for a while, given the often disturbing content promoted on the platform.
“We think that the benefits of being on X are now outweighed by the negatives. We believe resources could be better used promoting our journalism elsewhere.”
While SpaceX boss, Musk, has seen advertisers leave the site over concerns about its moderation policies, he has repeatedly emphasised freedom of speech and reinstated thousands of accounts previously blocked from the site, including the account of president-elect, Donald Trump.