Werder Bremen, a prominent German football club, has joined St. Pauli in boycotting X (formerly Twitter) due to an alleged surge in hate speech since Elon Musk’s acquisition.
Citing a drastic increase in harmful content, Werder Bremen announced its decision to halt posting on X after a club meeting late Monday.
The club had amassed over 500,000 followers on its German-language channel since joining in 2008.
Werder Bremen stated: “Under the guise of freedom of expression, hate speech, hatred towards minorities, right-wing extremist posts and conspiracy theories have been allowed to spread on X at an incredible pace.”
Alternatively, the club said it will now focus on Bluesky, a platform prioritising safety and inclusivity.
The club further stated that “recent radicalization” of X meant “a line has been crossed.”
This move reflects the growing concern among organizations and individuals about the proliferation of harmful content on social media platforms.
Last week, La Vanguardia, a leading Spanish newspaper announced it would stop publishing on X and would suspend its accounts on the social media platform.
Announcing the account suspension, in a statement last Thursday, La Vanguardia accused X of becoming a “network for conspiracy theories and disinformation” while completely abandoning “effective and reasonable moderation.”
With a total of 1.3 million followers on X the news outlet stated in the statement which was also published on X: “Since Elon Musk’s arrival, X has been filled with toxic and disorienting content in an increasingly overwhelming way.”
It noted that under Musk’s management, the platform has allowed “ideas that violate human rights, such as hatred of ethnic minorities, misogyny and racism” to run free, all with the sole purpose of making more money.
Its announcement also followed the UK’s The Guardian which earlier said it would no longer post on X, calling the platform a “toxic” source of “far-right conspiracy theories and racism.”
Its announcement to quit X also coincided with US president-elect Donald Trump’s announcement that Musk would co-lead a newly created Department of Government Efficiency, an entity that would be tasked with helping reduce wasteful spending by the federal government.
“Next to the decision to stop posting on X, this journal will keep track of people, entities, enterprises and institutions in this network to be able to report promptly to their readers of messages and discussions that may occur in it,” it earlier said.
Musk purchased X, then known as Twitter, for $44 billion in 2022, and subsequently rebranded it and rolled back most of its censorship policies.
The billionaire has been accused of mismanaging the platform ever since, claims he has repeatedly denied.