The Guardian has announced it is quitting Twitter/X amid rising concerns about content appearing on the site and its owner, Elon Musk. This trend does reflect a commitment to journalistic integrity and online safety that the publication would want for its readers.
Since Musk took ownership of the Twitter platform back in 2022, it has continued to grapple with an upsurge in far-right conspiracy theories, hate speech, and brought back some users previously banned. In a strongly worded warning, Guardian editorial team warned with deep concern that the direction taken by the platform-especially in terms of political discourses-is something that should attract.
The Guardian expressed the view in an opinion: how the US Presidential Election was dealt with on the platform only underscored its concerns. The editorial 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.”.
The Guardian’s exit means all 80 of its official editorial accounts on X-reaching an audience of about 27 million followers-will no longer post actively. Readers on X can still share articles, and X embeds might appear occasionally in Guardian reporting, but only as a very rare occurrence upon the orders of the Editor in Chief, Katharine Viner. Individual journalists and reporters are free to use X according to the parameters set out by The Guardian, particularly for newsgathering.
The move also sees The Guardian moving on from its social media accounts on X, having archived its accounts on the platform and redirecting its followers to join it elsewhere. “We will avoid embedding X posts unnecessarily on the Guardian,” added Viner. “It is a platform of decreasing usefulness for our readers, and an increasingly unstable environment.
The Guardian’s Editor-in-Chief Katharine Viner has also spoken against the over-reliance on X regarding editorial uses. Encouraging her staff to use it as little as possible, she says, for example, that social media will be a great tool-but only in environments it ostensibly belongs to. “At this point, X now plays a diminished role in promoting our work,” she said, encouraging audiences to seek their journalism directly on The Guardian’s website, where it remains freely accessible.
The Guardian is part of a growing number of news organizations that have pulled out of X over recent years. In 2023 alone, National Public Radio and PBS left after X labeled them “state-affiliated media,” a label NPR said was baseless. The Berlin Film Festival and other international institutions, as well as organizations such as the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital and North Wales Police, have also cut ties with X for the same reason: an increase in hate speech and inflammatory content.
This is a trend of exit that indicates a shift by reputable organizations toward digital platforms that are much safer and more regulated, particularly when there is a question of trust and accountability.
