In November, several major media, starting with The Guardianannounced that they were leaving the social network X, owned by far-right billionaire Elon Musk. Others followed, notably West France et The Vanguardas well as ONG like Greenpeace or Transparency International.
HAS Reporterrewe met as a team to think about the best attitude to adopt. With all the more attention that The Guardian is, like Reporterrea rare media outlet that is completely independent and practices quality journalism.
Rather than in three concise sentences – this is how the media concerned explained their departure from . Reporterre fights with determination against the extreme right, having notably brought together the environmental movement in this approach.
A growing unease
Since Elon Musk bought Twitter in 2022, unease has set in among social media users. Everyone knew for years that these networks, first perceived as an instrument of free communication – had they not been useful to popular revolts around the world in 2011, allowing people to communicate and organize themselves ? — were in fact under the control of those who own them.
It also became clear that these instruments, connecting hundreds of millions of people, even billions, could be used for political manipulation: in 2016, the company Cambridge Analytica had largely favored the election of Donald Trump by using Facebook data.
But anyway… Considering the multiple advantages – information, communication, personal satisfaction maintained by the likes —, almost everyone considered that the game was worth the effort, Twitter presenting a very practical formula for obtaining information and fueling public debate.
When Elon Musk stirs up the “ civil war »
Since Musk's takeover, Twitter, which has become « freedom » gives free rein to racism, machismo and bashing anti-green.
During the racist demonstrations in the summer of 2024 in England, « civil war » and fanning the flames by falsely and insultingly criticizing the Labor government.
In November 2024, Elon Musk, who had become an openly far-right politician and resolutely committed to Donald Trump's side, appeared as a minister to the next president of the United States. This context clearly played a role in the decision of the Guardian to leave X.
The discussion at Reporterre
The team of Reporterre met, as every time major subjects require collective reflection. In the discussion, we observed that we do not participate in any debates or comments on X, but that we offer information, that is to say links to our articles, which are freely accessible, so that all the world, rich or poor, can have access to information on ecology.
And, moreover, we block the accounts of people who comment on these articles with insults, racism or sexism. A first idea emerged from the discussion, that there was no reason to leave the field to the extreme right: not all users of find out about current events, for which, due to its design, X remains an effective tool.
Facebook, YouTube, TikTok… Platforms far from impeccable
Above all, while Reporterre has long questioned the weight of digital technology in our daily lives and in political life, we have also noted that other social networks are not much more recommendable: Instagram like Facebook belongs to Meta, led by billionaire Mark Zuckerberg .
He did not want to choose between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris, and has just had dinner with the next president of the United States. Instagram, moreover, practices censorship on political content.
Likewise, YouTube – which belongs to Google – directly contributed to electing Donald Trump in 2016 by granting him disproportionate visibility. On this platform with 150 million regular American users, 80 % of the contents were favorable to him.
In 2020, an Avaaz analysis of the 200 most viewed YouTube videos on climate change found that half of the views were associated with videos propagating climate skeptic or conspiracy theories. As for TikTok, which belongs to the richest person in China, Zhang Yiming, he made bed with Jordan Bardella, the president of the National Rally.
Diffuser notre alternative
Overall, we have decided, for the moment, to stay on X to provide information, even if, as Marine Tondelier, who also remains there, says, this social network is a pain.
We are developing our presence on Mastodon – a decentralized social network where we established ourselves in the summer of 2023 – and on BlueSky, which aims to be a sort of heir to Twitter. authentic », while remaining present on YouTube, on Instagram, on LinkedIn and on Facebook, always with the aim of widely disseminating rigorous and free information on ecological issues.
We are also continuing to develop our newsletters, which more than 150,000 subscribers receive – an essential tool because they are completely free from all the moguls of social networks (and if you are not yet subscribed, here is the link, c is free and without advertising).
Resist collectively
But above all, we must have a joint reflection on social networks with all free and independent media: we must put on the table of political debate the need for a sort of public service of social networks, currently colonized by billionaires of extreme right.
The problem is the same as with the press: faced with the influence of financiers, many media, including Reporterrehave developed and are beginning to constitute an efflorescence which makes the domination of this servile press less absolute. It does not cancel it, but puts pressure on it to prevent it from silencing a number of truths, reopens the public debate, and begins to modify the balance of power.
The media are starting to feel united and take joint action. We need to think collectively, and if we need to leave this or that network or put pressure on it, do it together, to really make an impact.
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