Mathieu Pollet
News publishers, press freedom advocates and journalists in past days have come out in Europe to turn their backs on X, the social media site run by tech tycoon and Donald Trump booster Elon Musk.
The new challenge came from Reporters Without Borders (RSF), who Wednesday took X to French court for letting fake news run wild. The NGO's challenge said X failed to take down a video falsely labeled as from the BBC and claiming that RSF was behind a study on Nazi beliefs among members of the Ukrainian army. The video reached nearly half a million views by mid-September and hadn’t been taken down, despite 10 reports of illegal content filed by RSF.
“X’s refusal to remove content that it knows is false and deceitful — as it was duly informed by RSF — makes it complicit in the spread of the disinformation circulating on its platform,” director of advocacy, Antoine Bernard, said.
RSF's case came as U.K. newspaper The Guardian announced on Wednesday that it was leaving the "toxic" platform, citing Musk's influence in the U.S. election and because of “often disturbing content promoted or found on the platform, including far-right conspiracy theories and racism.”
Spanish daily newspaper La Vanguardia also quit X, saying Thursday that X had “become a platform for conspiracy theories and misinformation.” And French publishers launched a legal case Tuesday claiming X won't open law-mandated talks with them over content payments.
The moves come at a sensitive time for Europe, as it grapples with how to respond to the election of Donald Trump. The U.S. president-elect beared heavily on Musk's financial and public support during his election campaign and announced the tech tycoon will take on a government role to size down the government apparatus.
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