New Delhi: St Pauli have become the first major club in football to exit the ‘X’ platform after calling the social media platform a “hate machine” and conveying their concern that it could be affecting the upcoming German election. Since Donald Trump’s victory in the US election last week, there has been a lot of concern about how X has been influencing the mindset of the people.
According to many, X has become a breeding ground for hate speech, conspiracy theories and rampaging racism. X, formerly known as Twitter, was bought by Elon Musk in October 2022, who had openly shown his support for Trump’s second term in the White House. Musk was given part control of the Department of Government Efficiency this week.
The Bundesliga club has always been known for its left-wing affiliation and have now stopped operating on X. They have instead switched to Bluesky, an alternative platform, and have urged their followers to do the same. Bluesky’s user base is alleged to have grown by 750,000 over the last 24 hours. The club, in its statement, noted that Musk had turned X into a platform for hatred.
St. Pauli announced that it has left Twitter because Elon Musk has turned the platform into a “hate machine”. 👋 pic.twitter.com/EJ4B9r2SNs
— Football Tweet ⚽ (@Football__Tweet) November 14, 2024
Concerns for Germany’s upcoming elections
Germany is set to hold a snap election in February after Olaf Scholz’s Three-party coalition collapsed last week. There is a growing concern that the far-right government, AfD, with an anti-immigration outlook, has a good grip on the population, having secured 10% of the vote in the previous federal election in 2021, and platforms like X could be their tool of influence.
In their departing note, St Pauli observed that Musk had used X to back Trump’s campaign and that the platform might also do the same during Germany’s election. The club noted that their previous posts on the platform, where they have close to 250,000 followers, will be available for reminiscence. They concluded that after a thorough dialogue with everyone in the club, they had decided against staying in the platform and were moving to Bluesky.
St Pauli have exited from social media site X over concern for the platform’s influence in German election. Football Sports News: Latest Cricket News, Cricket Live Score, Sports Breaking News from Sports Today
