UK Guardian quits X, says Musk used platform to influence U.S. election

The U.K. newspaper The Guardian has announced its departure from social media platform X, citing concerns over owner Elon Musk’s influence on U.S. elections.

The left-leaning publication stated on Wednesday that it will no longer use any official Guardian accounts on X, formerly known as Twitter. The paper has over 80 handles on X.

“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,” the paper said.

The Guardian added that it had been considering leaving X for some time, given the “often disturbing content promoted or found on the platform, including far-right conspiracy theories and racism.”

The publication also pointed to Musk’s influence, saying the recent U.S. election underscored its view of X as a “toxic” platform where Musk exerts significant political influence.

Musk was a prominent supporter of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump during the election, and was recently appointed as one of two heads of a new “department of government efficiency.”

Outgoing EU justice commissioner Věra Jourová previously referred to Musk as a “promoter of evil” in an interview with POLITICO, to which Musk responded by calling her “the epitome of banal, bureaucratic evil.”

Despite its exit, The Guardian said its journalists will still use X for news-gathering purposes, though X now has a “diminished role in promoting our work.” All Guardian-related accounts on X have since been archived.

Guardian’s full statement:

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.

X users will still be able to share our articles, and the nature of live news reporting means we will still occasionally embed content from X within our article pages.

Our reporters will also be able to carry on using the site for news-gathering purposes, just as they use other social networks in which we do not officially engage.

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.

Thankfully, we can do this because our business model does not rely on viral content tailored to the whims of the social media giants’ algorithms – instead we’re funded directly by our readers.