The daily “Ouest-France” becomes the first French newspaper to leave the social network

The newspaper thus follows the example of several other European media, which slammed the door of the old Twitter since it became the property of American billionaire Elon Musk.

“Today, X has turned its back on the media and does not offer the conditions necessary for the peaceful exercise of journalism.” The regional daily West France became, on Tuesday, November 19, the first title in France to stop publishing on the social network X, owned by American billionaire Elon Musk, thus following the example of several other European media. The newspaper, whose circulation exceeds 595,000 copies per day, “stop broadcasting” its contents on “final decision” et “fairly unanimous internally“, François-Xavier Lefranc, chairman of the board of directors ofWest France.

Since its acquisition in 2022 by Elon Musk, X (formerly Twitter) has been accused by many media and users of spreading false information and of not allocating enough resources to moderate exchanges on the platform. Fervent supporter of Donald Trump, the richest man in the world has been named head of a Ministry of Government Effectiveness by the new elected president of the United States and defends a radical vision of freedom of expression, rejecting all forms of censorship.

“We are not against social networks (…) we are simply asking for the application of the law on X”underlines François-Xavier Lefran. “Unless it becomes a regulated space that respects people”West France “won't come back” on X, “we don't do this to change our minds in two weeks”, he warned. And to add: “We can no longer accept that a conversational space like this demolishes people to this extent, that people are insulted, harassed, threatened with death (…) by anonymous accounts from which we cannot remove the anonymity.”