Why “Ouest-France” will no longer share its articles on X, “anti-social network”

MEDIA – West France does not disappear from X, but will no longer share its articles there. This Tuesday, November 19, the regional daily announced the news through a press release, in which it details the reasons for its withdrawal from the social network, formerly Twitter before being bought by Elon Musk.

« Already, on October 27, 2023, as a sign of protest against the lack of moderation and regulation of the social network where disinformation and fake news abound, West France had disconnected his publications on the platform “, begins the newspaper, which stands against the ” anti-social networks ».

Before continuing: “ In one year, it is clear that nothing has changed. On the contrary, the new measures taken by the network weaken it further. After the vagueness maintained around the blue dots (old model of account certification, editor’s note), the network modified the blocking conditions, thus harming the security of users and providing a significant breach in the face of cyberharassment. »

West France will continue to integrate X publications into its articles, if the information found there is original and verified. On the other hand, you will no longer see any tweets from one of the regional daily accounts.

Dailythe Guardian…

« How have we been able to transform debate tools that could be so useful to democracy into infernal machines that ignore the rules of law and ethics? Why this impunity? », asks François-Xavier Lefranc, chairman of the newspaper’s board of directors in this same press release.

If the broadcast Daily made this decision almost a year ago, several major international media have also decided to slam the door on X since the re-election of Donald Trump. This is the case of GuardianFor example. Or in Spain, The Vanguard.

And for good reason, the boss of the social network, Elon Musk, has not only allowed increased visibility of right-wing content on the platform since his purchase of Twitter. He himself made his account (followed by more than 200 million subscribers) a pro-Trump sounding board, particularly on questions of gender and immigration, or in his relay of fake news and conspiracy theories .