- The Guardian made the announcement to its millions of followers on X, this morning
- The British newspaper cited the ‘disturbing content promoted or found on the platform’
- Elon Musk’s ownership of X, formerly Twitter, has also influenced The Guardian’s decision
British newspaper The Guardian has announced that it is to stop posting on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.
The left-leaning newspaper took the step after declaring the Elon Musk-owned app a “toxic media platform” and that Musk “has been able to use its influence to shape political discourse.”
Across its various editorial accounts, The Guardian has north of 20 million followers, with each account now reading “this account has now been archived” in its bio, following the announcement this morning.
The newspaper has confirmed that X users, including its own journalists who remain on the platform, can still share articles from its website on the former Twitter.
In the article announcing the departure from X, The Guardian was particularly scathing about Musk’s ownership and the rise in “far-right conspiracy theories and racism”, saying, “We wanted to let readers know that we will no longer post on any official Guardian editorial accounts on the social media site X (formerly Twitter). 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.
“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 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.
“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.”
While The Guardian has not announced that they are moving social media operations to another platform, an increasing number of X users have been migrating to Bluesky, which has welcomed over a million new users in the past week.
