La Vanguardia News Letter Follows Guardian Leave Platform X, Condemns Toxic Content

La Vanguardia decided to stop posting on platform X (photo: screenshot/voi)

JAKARTA - Spanish newspaper La Vanguardia decided to stop posting on Elon Musk's social media platform, X, and plans to deactivate his account. On Thursday, November 14, the newspaper revealed that the platform, formerly known as Twitter, had become a "emergency room" for conspiracy disinformation and theory.

La Vanguardia, which is the fourth most widely read newspaper in Spain, will stop posting live on X, but still allow journalists to keep their personal accounts. La Vanguardia editor, Jordi Juan, also deactivated his personal account on the platform.

La Vanguardia's move follows The Guardian's decision in Britain, which on Tuesday 12 November also announced its exit from platform X citing rampant racism and conspiracy theories on the platform.

Barcelona-based La Vanguardia, having about 1.7 million followers on X, stated that since being taken over by Elon Musk in 2022, the platform has lost an "effective and reasonable" moderation mechanism. In its editorial, Juan criticized the growing tolerance for toxic and manipulative content in X due to the large number of bots.

"Ide-ides that violate human rights, such as hatred against ethnic minority, misogini, and racism, are part of viral content on X that gains user attention and generates more advertising revenue," La Vanguardia wrote in the editorial.

In addition, La Vanguardia also called Musk the head of the Department of Government Efficiency by US Elected President Donald Trump another factor that strengthened his decision to leave the platform. Disinformation spread by bots from countries such as India regarding the floods that occurred in Valencia two weeks ago is also referred to as an additional reason behind the decision.

When Musk took over X, he fired thousands of workers, including many involved in content moderation. La Vanguardia also noted that X withdrew from the EU program to fight disinformation in 2023, which critics say has exacerbated the spread of hate speech on the platform. Musk himself stated that his approach aims to protect free speech.