The Barcelona-based newspaper La Vanguardia, which has 1.7 million followers on X, says the platform lacked an 'effective and reasonable' moderating process since Elon Musk bought it in 2022.Gustau Nacarino/Reuters
Spanish newspaper La Vanguardia will stop posting on billionaire Elon Musk’s X platform and plans to suspend its accounts, saying on Thursday the social media network had become an “echo chamber” for disinformation and conspiracy theories.
Spain’s fourth most-read newspaper for general news said it would stop posting directly but would allow its journalists to maintain personal accounts. The editor, Jordi Juan, said he had suspended his own account.
X did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The move follows Britain’s the Guardian, which also cited racism and conspiracy theories for its exit from the platform on Tuesday.
The Barcelona-based newspaper, which has 1.7 million followers on the platform previously known as Twitter, said X lacked an “effective and reasonable” moderating process since Musk bought it in 2022.
“Since the arrival of Musk to X, this platform has increasingly tolerated toxic and manipulated content thanks to the proliferation of bots,” Juan wrote in an editorial.
“Ideas that violate human rights, such as hatred of ethnic minorities, misogyny, and racism, are part of the viral content distributed on X, where they gain virality and capture more user time to earn more money from advertising,” the paper added in a leader.
La Vanguardia also cited U.S. President-elect Donald Trump appointing Musk as head of a new Department of Government Efficiency and the spread of disinformation by bots, from countries as far away as India, about the floods that hit the region of Valencia two weeks ago as reasons behind its decision.
When Musk took over, he fired thousands of workers including many in the content moderation department, La Vanguardia said. X also left a European Union programme against disinformation in 2023, it noted.
Critics say Musk’s hands-off approach has allowed lies and hate speech to spread on the platform. Musk has said he is defending freedom of speech.
German Bundesliga club St Pauli also said on Thursday it was withdrawing from X because the social-media platform had become an ‘amplifier of hate’ that could influence German politics.
Announcing its reasons for withdrawing, the club said in a statement that X’s billionaire owner Elon Musk had turned a space for debate into “an amplifier of hate that was capable of influencing the German parliamentary election campaign.”
Germany is set to hold snap elections on Feb. 23 after the collapse of Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s governing coalition, and with far-right and far-left political parties surging.
The club’s decision comes a day after Britain’s the Guardian newspaper said it would stop posting on X, citing “disturbing content” including racism and conspiracy theories.
Spanish newspaper La Vanguardia followed suit on Thursday, saying it would suspend its accounts, as X had become an “echo chamber” for disinformation and conspiracy theories.
Musk purchased the platform formerly known as Twitter in 2022. Critics say his hands-off approach has allowed lies and hate speech to spread, while Musk has said he is defending free speech.
Hamburg-based St Pauli are known for having an alternative fan scene and left-wing supporter base.
They are also active with social projects, support for refugees and minorities and initiatives such as installing beehives in their stadium roof to raise environmental awareness.
“Since taking over Twitter, as the platform was previously known, Musk has converted X into a hate machine,” St Pauli said.
“Racism and conspiracy theories are allowed to spread unchecked and even curated. Insults and threats are seldom sanctioned and are sold as freedom of speech,” it said.
“The account will no longer be used, but the content of the last 11 years will remain online in view of its contemporary historical value,” it said.