Last week, The Guardian announced they would no longer be posting on Elon Musk’s X, citing concerns about the proliferation of far-right propaganda and conspiracy theories on the site.
The Guardian is not the only organisation to make this decision, with Balenciaga, the Berlin Film Festival, Best Buy and 3M also choosing to leave the site, amongst many others.
Following Musk’s controversial acquirement of Twitter, American broadcast organisation, National Public Radio announced its departure from the site in April 2023. The NPR’s decision to leave X, and cease posting on its 52 official Twitter feeds, was attributed to Musk labelling the network as ‘state-affiliated media’, the same term used for propaganda channels in autocratic countries like China and Russia.
NPR CEO, John Lansing later said in an interview that the organisations decision to leave X was a move to protect its credibility and integrity and continue to produce journalism without a “shadow of negativity”. This rationale was mirrored by The Guardian, and NPR’s move away from X has been accredited as the start of what is now being referred to as ‘The X-odus’.
What is the X-odus?
What was once a space for open discussion, fan communities and light-hearted memes, has become a politicised battleground, teeming with fake news and hate speech. The Twitter we knew and loved has been replaced by an app that thrives of controversiality, and since Musk’s acquisition, there has been an eruption of discourse regarding the proliferation of racism, misogyny, violent content and untruths on the site.
In September 2024, X released its first global transparency report. The report revealed that the site had suspended 5.2 million accounts for hate speech in the first half of 2024, compared to 1.2 million accounts suspended by Twitter in the first half of 2021.
This stark rise in account suspensions and hateful content has led many to argue that Musk has fostered an online environment that breeds and encourages hate and far-right speech.
In the wake of Musk’s appointment to the newly created Department of Government Efficiency following Trumps election victory, many have argued that this cements the far-right politician of X, leading to a mass exit from the site.
Is Bluesky on the forecast?
The X-odus has created space for a new big-player in the social media space. Although the rise of Threads had many believe it would fill the gap Twitter once occupied, its association with Meta may infringe on this.
Here enters Bluesky, an alternative platform created by Jack Dorsey, former head of Twitter. The app describes itself as “social media as it should be”, free from the toxic content littering X.
Bluesky has been around since 2019 but was invitation only until February 2024. Following the app owner’s decision to make it public, Bluesky currently has more than 19 million users and counting, gaining 1 million new users in the week following the US election.
Bluesky seems to be on track to takeover X and we’re excited to see what’s in store.
Watch this space.
For more interesting articles from us check out these posts:
About The Author
