EFJ, which claims to represent over 320,000 members but seems to not be well known by a vast majority of people, is the European regional organization for the International Federation of Journalists.
The association seemed to dislike the new freedom of speech standards of Musk's platform and thought that democracy and freedom of expression were at risk "by the collusion between the president of the most powerful country in the world, Donald J. Trump, and the richest man in the world, Elon Musk," as stated on their website.
X-odus: As of 20 January 2025, we have decided to stop publishing content on Elon Musk's platform X. We can no longer ethically participate in a social network that its owner has transformed into a machine of disinformation and propaganda. ?https://t.co/NTwnC63vhs
— EFJ (@efjeurope) November 26, 2024
Musk has been a staunch supporter of Trump who stood by the Republican presidential nominee during the campaign. Just after his victory in the U.S. 2024 election, Trump picked Musk, together with American entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, to lead a new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). (Related: Trump taps Musk, Ramaswamy to lead Department of Government Efficiency that will focus on reducing government spending.)
Musk also said that legacy media is dead, claiming that "most legacy media lied relentlessly to the public."
This seemed to have enraged the journalists, led by the EFJ President Maja Sever.
"We cannot continue to participate in feeding the social network of a man who proclaims the death of the media and therefore of journalists...The social media site X has become the preferred vector for conspiracy theories, racism, far-right ideas and misogynistic rhetoric," Sever argued in a statement. "X is a platform that no longer serves the public interest at all, but the particular ideological and financial interests of its owner and his political allies."
EFJ General Secretary Ricardo Gutierrez added that the editorial evolution of X "is simply in contradiction with our humanist values, our commitment to press freedom and media pluralism and our fight against all forms of hatred and discrimination."
He added that suspending their official handle @EFJEUROPE is an obviously expected decision. He also urged their affiliates and all organizations, which "defend freedom of expression" to migrate to other platforms.
ZeroHedge's Tyler Durden said that Musk's move to lift the "suffocating wet blanket of online censorship from a single website" seemed to have made the European media panic. They even claimed that Sever had received "misogynistic cyber-harassment and death threats" without showing any evidence to support the accusation.
Left-winger The Guardian stopped posting on X, which it called a "toxic media platform"
The EFJ's declaration to leave X came at the heels of the woke British news outlet The Guardian's announcement earlier in November that it would no longer post on X, claiming that the social media platform has become "toxic."
The Guardian said users would still be able to share articles and it was likely to continue to embed X posts in its coverage of world events. It also said its reporters would be able to carry on using the site "for news-gathering purposes." However, the "benefits of being on X are now outweighed by the negatives."
"This is something we have been considering for a while given the often disturbing content promoted or found on the platform, including far-right conspiracy theories and racism," the news outlet said.
The announcement was also posted on X, where some users reacted with vitriol, with those who paid for prominent replies accusing the publication of "woke propaganda" and "virtue signaling."
The U.K.-based media agency, which describes itself as "the world's leading liberal voice," positioned itself as a key part of the "resistance" to Trump. It even used the U.S. election to highlight that it is a media organization asking its readers for donations. According to BBC, readers pledged more than $1.8 million (£1.4 million), a record for a single day just a day after the election.
The New York Times' media reporter Ben Mullin, said that the Guardian's parent company, the Guardian Media Group’s fundraising was "a sign that some outlets are tapping a surge of enthusiasm for adversarial journalism post-election."
Meanwhile, social media platforms have been benefitting from the dropping out on X of mainstream media outlets, like Spain's La Vanguardia and liberal journalists, including Don Lemon, a one-time business partner of Musk who is now suing the billionaire.
Meta's Threads has continued to expand and Bluesky, which was set up by Twitter founder Jack Dorsey, briefly topped the download charts in the U.K. and U.S. Apple app stores.
According to a post by Bluesky, its userbase has grown by four million in two months and it picked up a million new users in the seven days after Trump's win. It now boasts around 16.7 million users, in November 2024, compared with nine million in September.
Among the prominent Hollywood celebrities who have migrated over to Bluesky are James Gunn, John Cusack, Ben Stiller, Kumail Nanjiani, Dionne Warwick, Colson Whitehead, Mara Wilson, Kashana Cauley and Megan Amram, among others.
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