Elon Musk comes under fire from Bundesliga club as they slam handling of X and become the first club from Europe’s top five leagues to quit the social media platform formerly known as Twitter
- Musk took over the platform in October 2022, purchasing it for £34.75 million
- However, a number of organizations seem to be dropping out for the new BlueSky site
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A football team from Germany has become the first from Europe’s top five leagues to announce it is leaving social media platform X.
X, formerly Twitter, is now run by billionaire Elon Musk, who bought the site from founder Jack Dorsey in October 2022 for around £34.75 million.
Musk has made a number of changes to the platform, from changing the verification process to changing the name itself and dropping the bird theme from the site that previously existed.
But there are critics about his work, which was highlighted when he endorsed Donald Trump again as president of the United States.
And with a number of companies including The Guardian leaving the platform, Bundesliga side St Pauli have now announced they will be leaving, also outlining the reasons for this.
A Bundesliga side has become the first club in Europe’s top five leagues to leave X
They criticize the handling of the platform formerly known as Twitter owned by owner Elon Musk
Musk bought the popular social site for around £34.75 million from founder Jack Dorsey
“FC St. Pauli withdraws from social media platform X,” they posted on their club website. ‘The Boys in Brown joined the platform in 2013 and had 250,000 followers.
Announcing the reasons for the withdrawal, the club said owner Elon Musk had turned a space for debate into an amplifier of hate capable of influencing Germany’s parliamentary elections.
‘Since taking over Twitter, as the platform was previously called, Musk has turned X into a hate machine. Racism and conspiracy theories are allowed to spread unchecked and even curated. Insults and threats are rarely punished and sold as freedom of expression.
‘Moreover, after his election victory, Donald Trump selected Musk to lead a new ministry. Musk was a key supporter of the Trump campaign and also used X for this purpose. It can be assumed that during the upcoming German election campaign, X will also promote authoritarian, misanthropic and far-right content, thereby manipulating public discourse.”
A number of clubs use
Clubs also use the platform to make money, with creators now getting paid for their content.
St Pauli, who are currently 16th in the rankings, confirmed that their current content will remain on the site, but they will no longer be posting.
A number of users have now flocked to alternative platform Bluesky – which was developed in collaboration with Dorsey – while Meta’s previously briefly threatened Threads
St Pauli claimed Musk has “turned X into a hate machine” since taking power
A number of clubs use X as a means of communication, although St. Pauli is moving away
A number of users are now switching to Bluesky, which is similar and partly built by Dorsey
“FC St Pauli had already restricted the use of X and increasingly posted political statements in support of diversity and inclusivity to take a stand against hate,” the statement continued. ‘Now the club is ceasing its activities on X.
‘The account is no longer used, but the content from the past eleven years remains online due to its contemporary historical value.
‘The club would like to thank its members for the critical exchange of ideas about what to do about X and calls on its followers on the platform to switch to BlueSky.
‘The English account of FC St. Pauli is also moving to BlueSky.’