this post was submitted on 12 Oct 2023
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German anti-racism body leaves X over 'rise in hate speech'::A German agency that tackles discrimination and racism says it is quitting the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter. It cited a rise in hate speech since owner Elon Musk took over last year.

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[–] [email protected] 61 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Many German officials have resisted calls to quit X, saying there was no substitute channel at present that would allow them to reach a broad section of the online public.

That's it right there - this line really emphasizes why Musky came up with the idea to buy the platform in the first place.

[–] nickhammes 42 points 1 year ago (2 children)

It's also an exit condition. When it no longer serves as a channel to reach enough people, they leave, and more leave as a result.. the interesting question is there that threshold lies

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

There certainly isn't a shortage of government-run mastodon servers in Germany. It's probably a good idea to make sure everything gets posted there and agencies with small and specialised audiences can get off twitter (also, facebook) quite easily. Say if you're interested in updates to discussions about updates to the tax code.

Others will stay as long as there's people to reach and the information is important. E.g. the weather service can withdraw when they get tired of the platform, while catastrophe relief just plainly won't as long as there's people on there. Everything actually important that the weather service says is also said by catastrophe relief (imminent bad storm, extreme UV/heat, what have you).

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

I guess depending on how many are just bots vs. actual users.

[–] donescobar 26 points 1 year ago

Tbh it has taken far longer than I expected but people do love their Xitter

[–] Darkhoof 24 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I'm amazed that the EU or Germany still haven't blocked Twitter for that matter.

[–] accideath 4 points 1 year ago

Only a matter of time…

[–] ilickfrogs 17 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] capy_bara 6 points 1 year ago

Also keep calling twitter, X is a dumb name

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago

This is the best summary I could come up with:


FADA said hateful comments and disinformation had "increased particularly" since Tesla tycoon Elon Musk took over the platform formerly known as Twitter last year.

In a statement, FADA said there had been an "enormous increase" in anti-trans and homophobic hostility, racism, misogyny, anti-semitism and other misanthropic content.

Ataman said FADA could only try to combat the surge in hate comments by channeling more resources to the platform, which could be a questionable use of public money.

A rise in disinformation on the platform, with doctored images and misleading claims, has been reported since the Palestinian terror group Hamas launched a massive surprise attack on Israel on Saturday.

Many German officials have resisted calls to quit X, saying there was no substitute channel at present that would allow them to reach a broad section of the online public.

X said it had taken steps to curb the recent spread of inappropriate posts and that it had removed newly created Hamas-affiliated accounts to "prevent terrorist content from being distributed online."


The original article contains 340 words, the summary contains 168 words. Saved 51%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I finally deleted Twitter from my phone a couple weeks ago.

I only used it for porn for the last 3 years and hadn't been on in over a month but I saw an article on here and was curious. So I opened it up and looked to see how the porn situation was going. I was going to keep it around if I could find a bit of good porn. But I scrolled and scrolled down through my feed and I only had politics, bigots, ragebait, and hateporn. I hadn't realized it had gotten so bad... I also have no idea where all my porn creators fled to.

Oh well, nothing of value was lost.

[–] Asudox 5 points 1 year ago

Exact same reason why I still use Reddit via the web. Not because I like it but because I have porn there.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Shouldn't that be exactly why they don't leave the place they're "needed most?" Why exist solely to "preach to the saved?" The only reason Religion does that is to exploit the congregation out of their money.

[–] [email protected] -2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Shouldn't the anti-racism group, like... Fight harder instead of just letting the racists have at it? 🤔

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Making a statement by leaving a racist platform is fighting harder.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

In what way? Even one of their own people is quoted in the article:

Ataman said FADA could only try to combat the surge in hate comments by channeling more resources to the platform, which could be a questionable use of public money.

Leaving the platform altogether isn't fighting against the discrimination or misinformation. They're more worried about how their agency would be perceived staying on the platform. This isn't a statement. It's giving up.