A massive movement is expected on X, formerly Twitter, Monday January 20, Donald Trump's inauguration day. Internet users will leave the social network now in the hands of Elon Musk, loyal support of the new future American president. A boycott because of the lack of moderation, online hatred, disinformation and particularly regarding climate. Among those who suffer the most “new version” of the network, environmental defenders and scientists.
Under Greenpeace publications, threats, insults: “I would be in favor of using live ammunition. When will one of your activists be shot like a dog? Their heads should be cut off”reads, for example, Sélyne Ferrero, responsible for web communications.
The NGO therefore decided, a few months ago, to leave X, also faced with disinformation and climate-sceptical messages: “Under all our publications, on any subject, articles which are published on not very verifiable sources, graphs not always truncated but with an interpretation which is not the one that the people at the origin of the graph had planned, on wind turbines, on nuclear power, on agriculture… It has become unmanageable.”
“Since the takeover by Elon Musk, the way the algorithms are implemented has locked us all in bubbles.”
-Valérie Masson-Delmotteat franceinfo
Same observation from paleoclimatologist Valérie Masson-Delmotte. She shares long explanatory threads on the climate with her 80,000 subscribers: “I really liked Twitter at first.” But today, it's over, she confides: “When I made publications around the climate, they were very visible. This is no longer the case.”
The scientist therefore joins another network, Bluesky, as do some of her colleagues, numerous NGOs, but also institutions, including universities and certain scientific institutes.
Related News :