The German anti-discrimination agency is leaving X (formerly Twitter), which has come under fire since the outbreak of the conflict in Israel due to the “massive” increase in hateful comments and misinformation, for which the watchdog holds X's owner Elon Musk responsible.
“X is no longer an acceptable environment for the profile of a public body,” the government agency on Wednesday, in a final publication on the increasingly contested social network.
The agency said it took this decision “due to the huge increase in transgender and queer hate, racism, misogyny, anti-Semitism and other hateful content” and took aim at Elon Musk by name.
“Hate speech and misinformation have particularly increased after the change of ownership and mass layoffs at Twitter,” it asserted.
“All government departments and other public bodies should ask themselves whether it is still acceptable to remain on a platform that has become a disinformation network and whose owner disseminates anti-Semitic, racist and populist content,” it added.
In particular, the agency criticises X for authorising the reactivation of “previously blocked far-right accounts” and for allowing “troll factories spreading pro-Russian propaganda” to buy verified accounts “in order to increase their visibility and influence debates.”
On Tuesday evening, European Digital Commissioner Thierry Breton threatened X with sanctions, calling on Elon Musk to account within 24 hours for the circulation of false information and violent images linked to the Israel-Hamas conflict.
On Wednesday, Mr. Breton announced his arrival on the Bluesky social network, X’s rival, created by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey.
