Gutted, I’m sure.
British newspaper group the Guardian has announced it will no longer post on X, formerly Twitter, saying it has become a “a toxic media platform”.
In a message to readers, external, it said the US presidential election “underlined” its concerns that its owner, Elon Musk, had been able to use X to “shape political discourse.”
The irony bypass is staggering. While it was Twitter and dissenting voices were silenced, it was just dandy and the poisonous scumbags at Guardian towers weren’t bothered, because that wasn’t shaping political discourse, but allowing a free for all is. Still, I’m sure Elon will be devastated to hear that the Guardian will no longer be posting.
But it said the “benefits of being on X are now outweighed by the negatives.”
One of those negatives being that people can now call out their bullshit.
The Lefty response to unfortunate information – if you cannot censor it then sit in the dark, with your fingers in your ears, and sing ‘La, la, la!” to yourself.
They’ve got two monkeys down pat… see no evil, hear no evil. Shame about the third monkey though.
I gave up on Twitter many years ago because of the way it was censoring people, but I’ve recently joined X (formerly known as Twitter) (why do they always add that?) – it’s a lot more open now. I wouldn’t have looked at the Grauniad’s postings anyway, so their leaving is no loss.
Here’s what Elon thinks…
https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1856674541033926719
Fair.
And accurate.
It says a lot about the Guardian that they consider that having an open platform that allows opinions that they disagree with makes it toxic. OK guys, you go back to your nice cosy little safe spaces, where all the nasty people are banned, where your ideas will never be challenged where you never learn a single new fact. This is where you end up when you hold opinions that can’t be defended in the free market of ideas.
I used to post on Comment Is Free and had surprisingly good debates about the Referendum. But one Leave won (hooray!) rightish comments became increasingly moderated, if comments were allowed at all (boo!). So I cancelled my user-id.
And they will still be able to call out their bullshit. The only thing that non-participation will halt is them getting community noted.