UK Guardian to stop posting on X over ‘racial content, far-right conspiracies’

The UK Guardian says it will longer post on X, the microblogging platform formerly known as Twitter, over “far-right conspiracy theories and racism”.

The newspaper said the benefits of being on the platform has now been outweighed by “often disturbing content” found on it.

Elon Musk, owner of X and newly appointed to lead the US department of government efficiency (DOGE), has been viewed as right-wing conservative, though he describes himself as “politically moderate”.

The news organisation said the blog’s coverage of the November 5 US presidential election that has brought Donald Trump back to office for a second term “crystallised its decision”.

“This is something we have been considering for a while given the often disturbing content promoted or found on the platform,” it said.

“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 news outlet said there would be no restrictions on individual reporters using the site beyond the organisation’s existing social media guidelines.

“Social media can be an important tool for news organisations and help us to reach new audiences but, at this point, X now plays a diminished role in promoting our work,” it said.

“Our journalism is available and open to all on our website and we would prefer people to come to theguardian.com and support our work there.”

Since Musk took over the microblogging platform, its approach to content moderation has faced criticism.