The Guardian to no longer post on ‘toxic media platform’ X

The British news outlet quits X citing ‘disturbing content’ on the platform, including racism and conspiracy theories.

British news outlet The Guardian has announced it will no longer post content on X due to the “disturbing content” on the “toxic media platform”, including racism and conspiracy theories.

The Guardian wrote on its website on Wednesday that it had been considering the decision to stop posting on the social media outlet for a while, but the US election earlier in November “underlined” its decision.

“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,” the Guardian wrote.

“We 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.”

The news outlet said users on X would still be able to share its articles on X and would still “occasionally embed content from X” within its articles, given “the nature of live news reporting”.

It added that Guardian reporters would still be able to use the site and other social networks on which the paper does not have an account.

The paper’s main X handle, @guardian, was still available on Wednesday, but a message on it advised, “this account has been archived” while redirecting visitors to its website.

The news outlet, which has 10.7 million followers on X, has become the first large UK media company to leave the platform following tech mogul Elon Musk’s purchase in 2022 for $44bn.

Critics have said Musk’s approach to the platform has allowed lies and hate speech to spread.

In response to the Guardian’s decision, Musk said on X, “They are irrelevant.”

In another reply to news about the outlet’s move to stop posting, Musk said the Guardian was “a laboriously vile propaganda machine”.

During the US presidential election, Musk endorsed Donald Trump and used his individual account with nearly 205 million followers to push support in favour of the Republicans with several misleading posts.

In the UK, the role of X and other social media platforms came under fire earlier this year after far-right, racist protests erupted after posts claimed that an attack in the English town of Southport, where three young girls were killed, was carried out by a Muslim migrant.

In recent months, some British charities and health and educational establishments have said they will no longer post to X.

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Al Jazeera and news agencies