# Guardian will no longer post on Elon Musk’s X from its official accounts Source: https://www.theguardian.com/media/2024/nov/13/the-guardian-no-longer-post-on-x-twitter-elon-musk 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. ## Comments **macbudkowski.eth**: Isn't it the same media that called for putting Musk in jail? 😂 **mishaderidder.eth**: Isn’t this why we have AI agents? Claude says … Based on the provided information, The Guardian itself did not directly call for putting Elon Musk in jail. However, they reported on statements from others who suggested legal consequences for Musk: Bruce Daisley, a former Twitter executive, said Musk should face arrest if he was found to have incited UK rioters An opinion piece in The Guardian discussed holding Musk accountable for UK's far-right riots These articles represent reporting on others' views and opinion pieces, rather than The Guardian as a news organization making such a call directly. **macbudkowski.eth**: Sure but giving space to these opinions is worse that X algorithm giving space to opinions that Guardian don't agree with. And it's worse because it must have been a human decision to publish it on a very limited space vs. algorithmic decision to display a post on much larger Twitter feed. It's a classic plausible deniality by these media - 'it's not what we think, it's just an opinion'. If they were reasonable they'd also publish opinions supporting Musk. **mishaderidder.eth**: I think Claude agrees … > Based on the provided information, I don't see any articles from The Guardian that are explicitly supportive of Elon Musk. In fact, the available articles show a consistently critical stance towards him. But true, The Guardian should also publish opinions supporting Musk so readers can better inform themselves to have their own opinion. **timdaub.eth**: „Inciting riots“ is such a crazy propagandist framing. I‘m getting mad when I read this, because it assumes people are just mindless NPCs that are mind controlled with an algorithm, and also that there is no underlying problem for why people are rioting. Can we please accept that people are informed, self-determined beings FIRST! **mishaderidder.eth**: I totally agree. Yes, people are self-determined and not mindless NPC. If people want to riot they will riot - they choose themselves. Obviously there were a range of problems underlying the riots in UK, like pre-existing xenophobic and anti-immigrant sentiments in certain communities. But the question is how informed the rioters were. It seems the unrest was primarily fueled by false information that spread rapidly on social media claiming the attack suspect was a "radical Muslim migrant". This misinformation was deliberately circulated by far-right groups. Musk made more than one controversial statement on X not really helping to calm people, including X-ing that "civil war is inevitable" under a video of the Liverpool riots. I don’t know, from the boss of one of the largest social media networks you would expect different behavior. But of course still folks choose themselves to go out and riot. The problem is not social media in itself, but how they inform themselves. Obviously back in the days people would get fired up to go riot reading printed flyers. That said, Musk being the boss of X doesn’t give me confidence he going to try and stop misinformation, in fact it is quite likely he is using X to further his own political agenda. Anyway people are building a range of interesting X alternatives lately that might be less biased. I’ve made jump ;)