After Ouest-France, Sud Ouest suspends its presence on the social network

The Sud Ouest group announced Thursday that it was suspending its presence on the social network X, owned by the American Elon Musk, in the wake of West France and several European media. Its contents will no longer be shared there “until serious guarantees of the fight against disinformation and in favor of the balance of debates have been provided”writes Nicolas Sterckx, general director, in a press release.

“The assumed lack of moderation was accompanied, over the past year, by the implementation of several measures with deleterious consequences”points out the regional daily, evoking the “limiting publications from media accounts”the “modification of blocking conditions” and the “disappearance of certification badges in favor of promoting paid accounts”. Nicolas Sterckx specifies that each employee of the group's various editorial offices will have the possibility of maintaining or not their presence on the network, while ensuring compliance with the ethical charters of each title.

First newspaper to do so in France, West France had announced the day before that he would stop publishing on “unless it becomes a regulated space that respects people”a few days after the British daily The Guardian, the Spanish newspaper The Vanguard and the Swede Today's News. 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. A fervent supporter of Donald Trump, the businessman defends a radical vision of freedom of expression, rejecting all forms of censorship. X's active users are estimated at several hundred million.