Musk labels ABC’s Twitter exit a pivot towards ‘censorship-friendly social media’
Elon Musk has hit back at ABC’s decision to reduce its X (Twitter) presence to only four accounts, suggesting that the public broadcaster “prefer censorship-friendly social media”.
In a tweet, Musk said of the public broadcaster’s move: “Well of course they prefer censorship-friendly social media. The Australian public does not.”
Well of course they prefer censorship-friendly social media.
The Australian public does not.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 9, 2023
The response came after ABC archived all of its X accounts earlier this week except for four: ABC News (@abcnews), ABC Sport (@abcsport), ABC Chinese (@abcchinese) and ABC Australia (@abcaustralia).
One reason ABC cited for the exit is the platform’s cost of use.
“Concerningly, X has reduced its trust and safety teams. Additionally, it is introducing charges which make the platform increasingly costly to us,” its statement read.
In response to a news.com.au article that explained the reason, Musk simply tweeted “Lmaooo”.
Lmaooo
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 9, 2023
ABC will remain engaged with other social media platforms including YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok, as it predicted TikTok “to have the strongest growth over the next four years”.
“We want to focus our effort and resources on where our audiences are,” the broadcaster said on Wednesday.
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