Dozens of universities and research institutions in Germany and Austria announced their intention to withdraw from the X platform on January 10 after a conversation between its owner Elon Musk and the leader of the far-right Alternative for Germany party Alice Weidel.
This is reported by DW.
In particular, the GEW union, which represents educators and teachers, and Verdi announced that they were removing accounts from X, as did the Federal Court.
In a statement, the institutions, which include some of Germanyʼs most prestigious universities, said that X was running a course that was contrary to their principles.
“The exit is a consequence of the incompatibility of the platform’s current orientation with the fundamental values of the institutions involved: impartiality, scientific integrity, transparency, and democratic discourse,” the joint statement said.
It states that Algorithm X enhances the spread of right-wing populist content while restricting the expression of other views, making any further use of the platform by signatories “unacceptable”.
The German government, for its part, said on Friday that X and other social media platforms use algorithms that do not promote “calm, objective and balanced discourse, but rather tend to agitate and polarize”.
The spokeswoman said that the government is in an ongoing discussion about whether to leave the platform, but has decided to stay for now, given the wide audience that can be reached through its services.
The comments came a day after Musk went live on the platform with Alice Weidel. Musk used X to urge German voters to vote for the AfD in the upcoming election and to criticize several leading German politicians, including Chancellor Olaf Scholz and President Frank-Walter Steinmeier.
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