More and more Swiss celebrities and institutions leaving X

More and more Swiss personalities and institutions are leaving X Keystone-SDA

The social media service X, formerly known as Twitter, has also lost its reputation in Switzerland. More and more big names and institutions are turning their backs on the platform owned by tech billionaire Elon Musk.

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On Friday the news portal Watson said it was shutting down its X accounts. The reason given was the increasing “denial of reality” desired by the owners.

The Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research (WSL) and the Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research also announced that they were withdrawing from X and switching to the short message service Bluesky. The Sempach Ornithological Institute is also no longer active on X.

+ Swiss public broadcasters withdraw from X/Twitter

In Swiss politics, Interior Minister Elisabeth Baume-Schneider is one of the pioneers. With Threads, she has opted for the alternative of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. On the other hand, the finance minister and this year’s president, Karin Keller-Sutter, only set up an account on X this year.

Fierce criticism of Musk

In Germany, over 60 universities and research institutions, including the Technical University of Dresden and Berlin’s Humboldt University, have announced in a joint statement that they are leaving the platform. “The values that promote diversity, freedom and science no longer exist on the platform,” the statement said.

+ Three-quarters of Swiss use ‘divisive’ social media daily

X and company owner Musk have been under increasing criticism for months. The accusation concerns the unhindered dissemination of hate messages and disinformation.

Musk himself has recently repeatedly interfered in the domestic politics of European countries with comments on X. In Germany, for example, he called for the right-wing populist AfD to be elected, and he engaged with AfD leader Alice Weidel on his platform and once again campaigned for the AfD. Musk is now also a special adviser to US President-elect Donald Trump.

+ Does social media fuel fake news in Switzerland as much as in the US?

Translated from German by DeepL/ts

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