The Guardian pulls out from Elon Musk's X, cites platform's 'toxic' environment, 'disturbing content'

Britain’s The Guardian newspaper announced Wednesday it would no longer post content from its official accounts on Elon Musk’s X, branding it a “toxic media platform” home to “often disturbing content”.

“We think that the benefits of being on X are now outweighed by the negatives,” the left-leaning newspaper, which has nearly 11 million followers on X, said in a statement on its website.

It added that its “resources could be better used promoting our journalism elsewhere”.

“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,” the statement noted.

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The paper’s main X handle – @guardian – was still accessible Wednesday but a message on it advised “this account has been archived” while redirecting visitors to its website.

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

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It also said its reporters would still be able to use the site and other social networks on which the paper does not have an account.

“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,” The Guardian added.

Musk purchased X, formerly known as Twitter, for $44 billion in 2022 and has consistently courted controversy with his use of the platform, particularly during the recent US presidential election.

Musk endorsed Donald Trump and used his personal account boasting nearly 205 million followers to sway voters in favour of the Republican, with a slew of incendiary, misleading posts criticised for cranking up the political temperature.

Trump on Tuesday announced that the Tesla and SpaceX billionaire would lead a so-called Department of Government Efficiency in his incoming administration, alongside the entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy.