The debate over the presence of hate speech, hoaxes, fake news and misinformation in the social networks It has been present for many years, but various recent events, such as the Dana de Valencia in our country or the presidential elections in the United States, have fueled the conversation and once again invited reflection. As a consequence, the media The Vanguard and Guardian have chosen to stop using X -formerly Twitter-.
The main reason is the recent appointment of Elon Musk, who acquired the platform at the end of 2022, as head of the newly created Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) of Donald Trump’s new mandate.
But they also refer to the toxicity that has taken over the microblogging network in recent times.
But beyond the reasons and arguments that both media have explained, another reason for his departure could be the little reach they get this type of accounts on the social network. The Guardian, With 10 million followers on X, he achieves an average of 30 likes per post. Something similar happens to The Vanguard. An engagement ratio that could have led them to become fed up with investing resources in something that is not giving the expected traffic generation results.
The Vanguard freeze your accounts
“On the same day that it became known that the owner of Our header will keep your accounts frozen in”.
“This platform has been increasingly abusing toxic and manipulated content”
This was stated by Jordi Juan, Director of the newspaper, in the media itself. As he explains, with this decision The Vanguard seeks not contribute with your traffic to the growth of this channel. He assures that since the arrival of Musk the platform “has been increasingly abusing toxic and manipulated content thanks to the proliferation of bots“.
The person in charge of the header points out that the moderation teams have been disappearing and X has entered “in a drift that violates the minimum concepts of ethics or justice that we should respect in a democratic society”.
He also comments that the network has become a “sounding board” for the hoax amplification by the sectors in favor of conspiracy theories.
Juan also alleges that Elon Musk has made a partisan use of the platform in favor of Trump’s Republican candidacy who has been reciprocated with a position.
The decision implies that The Vanguard will stop publishing tweets directly on X and will suspend its accounts, although it will monitor people, entities, companies and institutions in order to report. However, let freedom of conscience to its journalists to manage your personal accounts on the platform.
Jordi Juan has indicated that he closed his personal account two weeks ago. “In these complex times for freedom of information, sometimes there are gestures that we are forced to make”; has expressed.
Guardian will no longer publish on X
The decision of The Vanguard It is communicated just one day after that of the British newspaper Guardian. “We wanted to inform readers that we will no longer be posting to any official Guardian editorial accounts on the social network X (formerly Twitter)”; They explain from the middle. “We believe the benefits of being on X are now outweighed by the negatives and that resources could be better used to promote our journalism elsewhere”.
The header claims that it is something he has been considering for a while due to the content hosted by the platform“including conspiracy and far-right theories and racism”. He also points out that the electoral campaign in the United States has stressed that “X is a toxic media platform and its owner, Elon Musk, has been able to use his influence to shape political discourse”.
However, it explains that users of the platform will be able to continue sharing the articles of Guardianand they point out that occasionally could incorporate content from X in your news and information.
On the other hand, it also points out that its journalists will be able to continue using the network, in the same way as they do with others.
“Social media can be an important tool for news organizations and help us reach new audiences, but at this time, X now plays a minor role in promoting our work“, they conclude. “Our journalism is available and open to everyone on our website and we would prefer people to come to theguardian.com and support our work there”.
The movements of both media are reminiscent of those made by others and some brands and companies as a result of the scandal of Facebook and Cambridge Analytica in 2018. In that case it was discovered that the personal data of 50 million users of the social network were leaked and used by the British company to influence the political campaign of Donald Trump in the United States and Brexit in the United Kingdom.
Reason Why was one of the media that chose to stop publishing on the platform, considering it an unacceptable crisis for a company with such high prominence and so much responsibility towards the current economy and society.
Alternative social networks
The decision by La Vanguardia and The Guardian is part of a large-scale movement in which thousands of users worldwide are deactivating or suspending their accounts in X, alluding to the same motivations as those of the two headings.
Bluesky or Threads are welcoming users who previously used X
The result is that other similar platforms, also oriented toward microblogging, have significantly boosted their growth in just a few days. Bluesky, Launched in 2019 by Jack Dorsey, Founder and former CEO of Twitter, it has gained one million followers in the week following the presidential election. Thus, it now exceeds 15 million users, compared to the 13 million it registered at the end of October.
threads, Meta’s alternative to Twitter has also benefited from the flight of users in recent months. Thus, in October it registered 275 million monthly users, compared to 200 last August.
Mastodon, On the other hand, which skyrocketed its number of users when Elon Musk acquired Twitter, it is also witnessing the influx of new users, but not in a significant way.
