The Guardian has announced it will no longer post content on Elon Musk’s social media platform, X, from its official accounts.
In an announcement to readers, the news organisation said it considered the benefits of being on the platform formerly called Twitter were now outweighed by the negatives, citing the “often disturbing content” found on it.
“We wanted to let readers know that we will no longer post on any official Guardian editorial accounts on the social media site X,” the Guardian said.
The Guardian has more than 80 accounts on X with approximately 27 million followers.
The Guardian said content on the platform about which it had longstanding concerns included far-right conspiracy theories and racism. It added that the site’s coverage of the US presidential election had crystallised its decision.
“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.
“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.”
Anti-hate speech campaign groups and the EU have criticised Musk, the world’s richest person, over content standards on the platform since he bought it for $44bn in 2022. A self-declared “free speech absolutist”, the Tesla chief executive has reinstated banned accounts including those of the conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, the misogynist influencer Andrew Tate and the British far-right activist Tommy Robinson.
The Guardian said X users would still be able to share its articles across the platform and that posts on X would occasionally be embedded in its work as part of its live news reporting. Reporters would also be able to continue using the platform for newsgathering purposes, the Guardian said.
Although the Guardian’s official accounts are withdrawing from X, there will be no restrictions on individual reporters using the site beyond the organisation’s existing social media guidelines.
“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,” the Guardian said.
Responding to the announcement, Musk posted on X that the Guardian was “irrelevant” and a “laboriously vile propaganda machine”.
Last year National Public Radio (NPR), the non-profit US media organisation, stopped posting on X after the social media platform labelled it as “state-affiliated media”. PBS, a US public TV broadcaster, suspended its posts for the same reason.
This month the Berlin film festival said it was quitting X, without citing an official reason, and last month the North Wales police force said it had stopped using X because it was “no longer consistent with our values”.
In August the Royal National orthopaedic hospital said it was leaving X, citing an “increased volume of hate speech and abusive commentary” on the platform.
