Guardian withdraws from Elon Musk’s X
Broadsheet newspaper’s official accounts will no longer post on the social media platform, following concerns over content and coverage of US election
Social media has been abuzz with news that British newspaper group the Guardian will no longer post content to the social media platform X (formerly Twitter) from its official editorial accounts.
Photo by Julian Christ
One reason this is of interest is that the Guardian has a sizeable presence on X, with numerous accounts and some 27m followers. But some are seeing this as further evidence of a significant shift in the social media landscape – and the way we converse online.
For more than a decade, social media platforms such as X have been key source of news and information. As we reported in September, regulator Ofcom noted a ‘generational shift in the balance of news media’; for the first time since the 1960s, TV is no longer the leading source of news, with more of us getting our news online.
A wide range of public and private sector organisations have placed increasing emphasis on social media in sharing communications. Some organisations have built identities, even personalities, out of the way they converse in these spaces. But many have felt the benefit of social media for immediate, direct communication.
That’s why it’s so notable that a well-respected news group is withdrawing from one of the most prominent social media platforms.
In announcing the decision to withdraw from X to its readers, the Guardian cited ‘longstanding concerns’ about ‘often disturbing content promoted or found on the platform, including far-right conspiracy theories and racism.
‘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 news group is not the first high-profile organisation to withdraw from X. Last year, the non-profit US media company National Public Radio (NPR) stopped posting following a row over X labelling it as ‘state-affiliated media’. US public TV broadcaster PBS has also stopped posting for similar reasons.
In the UK, the North Wales police force stopped using X as it was ‘no longer consistent with our values’. The Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital left X in August, citing ‘increased volume of hate speech and abusive commentary’.
X has yet to comment on the decision by the Guardian but frequently cites its commitment to free speech. In April last year, X Safety posted an update on its enforcement policy for promoting and protecting public conversation. ‘We believe Twitter users have the right to express their opinions and ideas without fear of censorship,’ it said, as well as outlining new measures to tackle content that violated its rules.
Meanwhile, X’s loss seems to have been other platforms’ gain. The day before the Guardian announced its decision, Bluesky announced that 1m new accounts have joined its platform in the past week following the US election and now boasts more than 13m users.
That is still a long way off X’s estimated 500m active monthly users. Even so, Bluesky is a relatively new social media platform Bluesky, founded in 2019 as part of Twitter and then independent from 2021. It will be interesting to see how much the recent, rapid growth continues over coming weeks and months.
Meanwhile, the well-established Instagram (launched in 2010) is forecast to have 1.4bn active users each month globally by 2025 – accounting for almost a third of all internet users worldwide.
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