The Guardian stops posting on 'toxic media platform' X

LONDON: Britain´s The Guardian newspaper announced on Wednesday it would no longer post content from its official accounts on Elon Musk´s X, branding it a “toxic media platform” home to “often disturbing content”.

“We think that the benefits of being on X are now outweighed by the negatives,” the left-leaning newspaper, which has nearly 11 million followers on X, said in a statement on its website.

It added that its “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 statement noted.

“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 paper´s main X handle -- @guardian -- was still accessible on Wednesday but a message on it advised “this account has been archived” while redirecting visitors to its website.

The Guardian noted that X users would still be able to share its articles, and that it would still “occasionally embed content from X” within its articles given “the nature of live news reporting”.