UK’s Guardian withdraws from X, Musk says ‘they are irrelevant’

WASHINGTON — Calling it “a toxic media platform”, Britain’s leading daily Guardian on Wednesday announced that it will stop posting content on Elon Musk-owned social media platform X from its official accounts, a decision that has drawn flak from several quarters, including the American billionaire businessman himself who retaliated strongly by referring the UK news outlet as “irrelevant” and “a laboriously vile propaganda machine”.

The Guardian cited the “often disturbing content” found on X as the reason for quitting the platform, earlier known as Twitter, informing its readers on Wednesday that it will no longer post on any official Guardian editorial accounts on the social media site X.

“This is something we have been considering for a while given the often disturbing content promoted or found on the platform, including far-right conspiracy theories and racism,” the Guardian, which has more than 80 accounts on X with nearly 27 million followers, stated.

“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,” it added.

The Guardian also stated that its reporters can still use X for newsgathering purposes and users would be able to share its articles across the platform.

The decision, however, came under huge criticism with several X users, including many Americans, slamming the British news organisation.

Musk himself called the UK daily as “irrelevant” and “a laboriously vile propaganda machine”.

“They are irrelevant”, he posted while replying to a news report on the Guardian’s decision.

Replying to another post by social media commentator James Esses who called Guardian “an enemy of free speech and a proponent of partisan ideology over journalistic integrity”, Musk wrote: “They are a laboriously vile propaganda machine”.

India too has called out the UK daily for its misleading reportage on several occasions over the past several years.

In December 2012, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) had rubbished a Guardian report titled ‘Counterfeit medicine from Asia threatens lives in Africa’.

“The Government of India would like to state categorically that the report is totally incorrect. No fake medicines have been sent from India to the continent of Africa. Allegations of the nature mentioned in the Guardian, when they have surfaced previously, have been investigated both in Africa and in India and have been found to be baseless with the origin of such drugs not being from India,” the MEA had stated on December 30, 2012.

Earlier this year, Chris Blackburn, a leading British political analyst, had trashed a Guardian editorial on India’s general election.

“The Guardian’s recent editorial on India’s general election clearly indicates a bias, stating: ‘Indian voters ought to think hard about giving Narendra Modi another popular mandate’. Editorials of this nature hinder the work of foreign press in India. Collectively, foreign correspondents should express their concerns to The Guardian—asking them to refrain from biased reporting. Tell them to put a sock in it,” Blackburn posted on X on May 9, 2024.