European news organizations really seem to hate free speech. The European Federation of Journalists (which claims to represent over 320,000 members) has followed The Guardian and the German Journalists Association in an announcement that they will stop publishing on Elon Musk's X social media platform staring on January 20, 2025 - The inauguration for Donald Trump's second term as President. The EFJ is the European regional organization for the International Federation of Journalists.
X-odus: As of 20 January 2025, we have decided to stop publishing content on Elon Musk's platform X. We can no longer ethically participate in a social network that its owner has transformed into a machine of disinformation and propaganda. 👇https://t.co/NTwnC63vhs
— EFJ (@efjeurope) November 26, 2024
While the EFJ is a group that the vast majority of people have probably never heard of, their announcement tracks a rising tide of disdain among governments and establishment news outlets in the EU and UK over the new freedom of speech standards on X (formerly Twitter). The EFJ president, Maja Sever, argued in a statement on the "X-odus":
“We cannot continue to participate in feeding the social network of a man who proclaims the death of the media and therefore of journalists...The social media site X has become the preferred vector for conspiracy theories, racism, far-right ideas and misogynistic rhetoric. X is a platform that no longer serves the public interest at all, but the particular ideological and financial interests of its owner and his political allies.”
In other words, Elon Musk has lifted the suffocating wet blanket of online censorship from a single website and the European media are losing their minds. The organization also claimed that their president had received "misogynistic cyber harassment and death threats", though they did not produce any evidence to support the accusation.
🇭🇷 Days after the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, we call for the misogynistic insults and threats suggesting death of our esteemed colleague @SeverMaja be punished. The journalist is targeted on X due to her role as @efjeurope President. pic.twitter.com/3dqs2UBxUo
— Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR) (@MediaFreedomEU) November 27, 2024
Woke buzzwords like "racism" and "misogyny" no longer have any effect on the general public and the real reason corporate journalists are running away from X is because now they can be challenged on their false information and biased reporting on fair ground and in a fair debate. Under the previous progressive Twitter regime, leftist journalists and activists could simply contact their friends at the company and have their critics flagged or even banned.
Far from being a "vector for conspiracy theories", X has become the only major social media outlet on the internet where any views to the right of Karl Marx and the World Economic Forum are allowed to be published. The cultural elitism and cheerleading for censorship displayed by corporate news sites in recent years is the exact reason why they have lost the respect of the vast majority of the public.
When Musk says that the media is dead, he's not wrong. The ivory tower of the old media gatekeepers has long since crumbled into insignificance. Journalism today is synonymous with disinformation and indoctrination, and the more academically exposed a journalist is the less they can be trusted to tell the truth in most cases.
So far, no American-based media organization has opted to leave X but individual news representatives have. The announcement from EFJ reflects a disturbing trend of far-left authoritarianism and censorship within the EU and the UK. As the US quickly abandons the chains of woke ideology and globalism, Europe appears to be falling ever deeper into the dark.
