Brutal message from Elon Musk to the ABC after leaving Twitter accounts: ‘Of course they prefer censorship-friendly social media’
Elon Musk has accused the ABC of “censorship” after the public broadcaster announced it would close all but a handful of Twitter accounts.
The ABC will now operate just four accounts on the social media platform: ABC News, ABC Sport, ABC Chinese and ABC Australia.
The national broadcaster’s general manager David Anderson issued a statement on Wednesday blaming “toxic interactions” on Twitter, now known as X, for the move.
But billionaire entrepreneur Musk, who acquired X last October, took to the ABC about the decision.
“Of course they prefer censorship-friendly social media,” he wrote.
“Not the Australian public.”
Elon Musk has accused the ABC of “favoring censorship” after the public broadcaster announced it was giving up all but a handful of its Twitter accounts
The move comes after a number of ABC stars left Twitter, or X, after being targeted for abuse.
Leigh Sales and Lisa Millar have both deleted their accounts in recent years, while radio host Patricia Karvelas turned off her direct messages.
Announcing its decision to reduce its presence on X, the ABC said the majority of its social media audience was on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok.
Musk lashed out at the ABC after it announced it would delete all but four accounts on X
“We also found that closing individual program accounts helps limit team members’ exposure to the toxic interactions that are unfortunately becoming more common on X,” a statement said.
“It is concerning that X has downsized its trust and security teams. Moreover, costs are charged that make the use of the platform increasingly expensive.’
The ABC shut down Insiders, News Breakfast and ABC Politics’ X accounts in February “and the results have been positive.”
While still posting on their main @abcnews account, their media teams are striving to grow ABC’s TikTok audience, which is expected to be most beneficial for growth.
This news follows Mr Anderson sitting before a Senate hearing in May where he testified against X’s security for users.
Twitter, as it was known at the time, had become a “cesspool,” according to Anderson, who said he had to refer several cases of trolling to the police.
Stan Grant stepped down as host of ABC’s Q+A program after being racially insulted following coverage of the coronation
The director cited an assessment of whether the organization was doing enough to support its employees and said he was concerned about their public-facing workforce.
“We are coming to an abyss here, especially in the discussion of how to protect our people,” he said before the committee.
Things got especially bad during coverage of ABC’s 2023 coronation, in the aftermath of which star Stan Grant relinquished his position as host of their Q+A program.
On related broadcasts, Mr. Grant, a First Nations man, pointed out that the crown represents the invasion and theft of Aboriginal land.
The segment sparked about 1,800 complaints from the public, the Senate Investigative Committee hearing was told.
Hundreds of complaints were racist in nature, Anderson said, while others noted that the coronation discussion was worthwhile but ill-timed.
“Some of it was in good faith, a lot of it was not in good faith,” he said.
“I think the time for dignified silence is over, I think for our people we definitely need to give more public support to them and what we do internally.”