German institutions depart X, a day after Musk's Weidel talk
More than 60 German and Austrian academic organizations say they will leave the messaging platform X owned by Elon Musk. The German government has also voiced fears that the platform is warping political discourse.
Scores of universities and research institutions in Germany and Austria on Friday announced their intention to drop their presence on the online messaging platform X (formerly Twitter), saying its algorithms were opposed to a discourse based on scientific and democratic integrity.
The planned withdrawal in the academic sphere comes as the German government says it is also considering leaving the platform because it was having an "agitated and polarizing" effect on public political discussion.
On Thursday, the trade unions GEW, which represents educators and teachers, and Verdi announced they were deleting their X presence, as did the Federal Court of Justice (BGH).
In a statement, the institutions, which include some of Germany's most prestigious universities, said that X was steering a course that went against their principles.
