 "'X' logo is seen on the top of the headquarters of the messaging platform X, formerly known as Twitter, in downtown San Francisco, California, US, July 30, 2023. File Image: Reuters")
Germany’s defence ministry on Wednesday announced that it will stop posting on X as it accused the microblogging app of spreading disinformation under Elon Musk’s ownership.
The ministry said it “will no longer post proactively on the channel for the foreseeable future”, justifying the move by saying that “the fact-based exchange of arguments is becoming increasingly difficult” on the platform.
The German defence ministry is the latest of a host of public institutions to have quit X, formerly known as Twitter, since US President-elect Donald Trump’s November election victory which gave a further push to Musk’s power and popularity.
The ministry, however, said that it “reserved the right to react on X in exceptional cases, such as to react to disinformation”.
It said it would in the future use a channel on WhatsApp, owned by rival US tech company Meta, to proactively share information.
German universities ditch X
Last week, a group of more than 60 German universities said they were turning their backs on the site. Its “current direction is not compatible with the basic values of the institutions concerned – openness to the world, scientific integrity, transparency and democratic discourse”, they said.
A spokesperson for the University of Münster said that the institution was employing X as a useful tool to engage in discourse and discussions but of late the situation has changed.
“We were…increasingly concerned and disturbed by how the [platform] as a whole has developed. Openness, scientific integrity, transparency and a democratic culture of debate: these are the values that are important to us as a university but which have increasingly taken a back seat on X,” the spokesperson said.
“The conditions for this (free discourse) are no longer met on X. In recent months, the way the social media platform works and functions has changed dramatically: the algorithm intervenes extensively in the distribution of information, steers discussions and prevents a free exchange,” said a University of Potsdam spokesperson.
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Musk recently caused uproar after backing the AfD in an opinion piece for the Welt am Sonntag, leading to the resignation of the paper’s opinion editor, Eva Marie Kogel, in protest.
“The Alternative for Germany (AfD) is the last spark of hope for this country,” Musk wrote in his translated commentary.
The Tesla Motors CEO also wrote that his investment in Germany gave him the right to comment on the country’s condition.
With inputs from agencies