“The reason for the withdrawal: owner Elon Musk has turned a room for debate into an amplifier of hate that can also influence the German federal election campaign,” St. Pauli said in a statement on its website. “Since Musk took over Twitter … he has turned X into a hate machine. Racism and conspiracy theories spread unhindered or are even curated. Insults and threats are barely sanctioned and sold as supposed freedom of expression.”
St. Pauli's statement was illustrated by a photo of a sticker showing a fist smashing a swastika, beside the club's emblem and a slogan saying its fans are against right-wing politics.
St. Pauli noted that Musk supported Donald Trump during the U.S. presidential election “with the help of X,” and that “it can be assumed that X will also promote authoritarian, misanthropic and right-wing extremist content in the (German) federal election campaign and thus manipulate public discourse.”
Germany looks set to hold early parliamentary elections on Feb. 23 after Chancellor Olaf Scholz last week fired Finance Minister Christian Lindner, ending a fractious alliance between three political parties.
St. Pauli is the first German top-level club to say it is leaving X following the U.S. election result. British newspaper The Guardian said Wednesday it would no longer post content on the network, describing it as a “toxic media platform.”
Bluesky on Wednesday said its total users had surged to 15 million, up from roughly 13 million at the end of October.
St. Pauli said it would leave its content from the past 11 years on X "as it has historical value" but won't make any new posts.
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AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer