Elon Musk has slammed the ABC on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, after it was revealed that the network would abandon its Twitter accounts and only post on other social platforms.
“Well of course they prefer censorship-friendly social media. The Australian public does not,” he tweeted.
Well of course they prefer censorship-friendly social media.
The Australian public does not.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 9, 2023
The ABC abandoned its accounts on X yesterday citing an increase in “toxic interactions” on the platform, “negligible” referral traffic and the introduction of fees to become verified.
The only ABC accounts to remain active will be ABC News (@abcnews), ABC Sport (@abcsport), ABC Chinese (@abcchinese), and ABC Australia (@abcaustralia) as these accounts provide Aunty with “overwhelmingly” the most value.
“The vast majority of the ABC’s social media audience is located on official sites on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok, with TikTok forecast to have the strongest growth over the next four years,” said a statement from the ABC.
“We also found that closing individual program accounts helps limit the exposure of team members to the toxic interactions that unfortunately are becoming more prevalent on X.
“Concerningly, X has reduced its trust and safety teams. Additionally, it is introducing charges which make the platform increasingly costly to use.”
The ABC and other organisations, such as Britain’s BBC, took umbrage with the decision from Twitter to start labelling their accounts as “government-affiliated” and “government-funded media.” These labels have since been dropped.
