The regional daily Ouest-France became this Tuesday the first title in France to stop publishing on the social network X, owned by American billionaire Elon Musk, following the example of several other European media. 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 support of Donald Trump, the richest man in the world has been appointed 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.”Today, X has turned its back on the media and does not offer the necessary conditions for the peaceful exercise of journalism“, accuses Ouest-France, in a press release.
The daily, whose circulation exceeds 595,000 copies per day, “stop broadcasting“its contents on X, one”final decision” et “fairly unanimous internally“, François-Xavier Lefranc, chairman of the board of directors of Ouest-France, announced to AFP. “We are not against social networks (…) we are simply asking for the application of the law on X“, he emphasizes. “Unless it becomes a regulated space that respects people“, West France “won't come back“onwe don't do this to change our minds in two weeks“. “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 whose anonymity cannot be lifted. .“
For Ouest-France, he is no longer “neither wise nor opportune to be active, as long as serious guarantees are not taken in the face of disinformation, harassment and violence” on this network, assures the daily in a press release. On X, the Ouest-France account posted a “last tweet, for now“.
“Biased” rules of the game
With this announcement, Ouest-France becomes the first French newspaper to leave X, a few days after the British daily The Guardian, the Spanish newspaper La Vanguardia and the Swedish Dagens Nyheter. The fact that major newspapers are leaving social network X, accused of spreading disinformation, is “the symptom of the failure of democracies to regulate platforms“internet,” Vincent Berthier, head of the technology department of Reporters Without Borders (RSF), told AFP on November 15.
The day before, this French press defense NGO announced that it had filed a complaint against the network, in particular for defamation and dissemination of false news. West France is also “on trial” against Elon Musk's network, François-Xavier Lefranc recalled on Tuesday. Since the end of October 2023, the regional daily had significantly slowed down the pace of its publications on regulation” on the network.
“In one year, it is clear that nothing has improved” et “the rules of the game are now biased“, judges Ouest-France in its press release. Active users of Hundreds of pro-Russian “bots” spread false information on Democratic candidate Kamala Harris on X.
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