More than sixty German and Austrian universities indicated on Friday their withdrawal from American billionaire Elon Musk’s social network X, worried about the anti-democratic excesses of this platform.
This announcement comes the day after a discussion in X between the candidate for chancellor of the German far-right AfD party, Alice Weidel, and Mr. Musk.
The entrepreneur reiterated his support, six weeks before the anticipated legislative elections in this country.
“The values of diversity, freedom and science are no longer present on the platform”, say in a joint statement renowned institutions such as the Free University of Berlin, the Humboldt University or the Sport University of Berlin. Cologne.
Two universities in the Austrian city of Innsbruck have also signed this text.
The signatories say they no longer want to stay on this platform because of its recent developments and, in particular, its algorithmic reinforcement of right-wing populist content.
-In Germany, these approximately sixty higher education establishments and research institutes are the latest in a long list to announce their departure from X. On Thursday, the Federal Court of Justice indicated that it would no longer publish anything on this site all like several unions, including that of services (Verdi), treating the platform as a “forum of hatred, disinformation and far-right propaganda”.
Last fall, football clubs like Werder Bremen, four-time German champion, or Sankt Pauli, based in Hamburg, also slammed the door of X, as did the Aldi Nord supermarkets.
The German government must regularly justify its continued presence in X.
“We are very concerned about the development of Christiane Hoffmann, Friday during a regular press briefing.
“For now, we have decided to stay in X, but we are constantly evaluating the situation,” she said.
