The German Defence Ministry announced that it will no longer actively post on Elon Musk’s X social media site amid growing calls to censor the platform in Europe.
On Wednesday, the Ministry of Defence (BMVg) said in a statement that it would no longer “proactively” post on its account on X for the “foreseeable future”.
The ministry, currently controlled by left-wing Social Democrat Boris Pistorius, claimed that it left the platform mainly because “the factual exchange of arguments is becoming increasingly difficult.”
The BMVg said it would start releasing news and decisions from the Defence Minister on a WhatsApp channel and continue to be active on the Meta-owned Instagram platform.
The decision came days after X owner Elon Musk conducted a live “spaces” interview with Alternative for Germany (AfD) co-leader and chancellor candidate Alice Weidel.
To the chagrin of the political establishment in Berlin, Musk has become a vocal supporter of the anti-mass migration party, asserting that only the AfD can “save Germany”.
Liebe Followerinnen und Follower,
— Verteidigungsministerium (@BMVg_Bundeswehr) January 15, 2025
wir werden unseren X-Kanal bis auf weiteres ruhen lassen und vorerst nichts mehr aktiv posten.
Wir haben uns zu diesem Schritt entschlossen, weil ein sachlicher Austausch hier zunehmend erschwert wird. (1/3)
The move from the German Defence Ministry also comes amid growing calls across Europe to censor X. On Sunday, the leader of the French Écologistes (Green) party, Marine Tondelier, called for the platform to be “banned in Europe”.
“We must act strongly to protect information on our territory,” the green politician insisted, according to the Libération newspaper.
Tondelier also called for fellow left-wing New Popular Front parliamentary coalition members to abandon X, demanding that “we all have to leave Twitter”.
“The social network Twitter is not only annoying but also dangerous. The question of leaving it obviously arises, but it will not be enough: it must be banned,” she wrote on X.
The Écologistes leader, who has continued to post on the platform since then, was ironically forced to apologise for spreading misinformation herself this week.
“Yesterday at noon, I said on RTL that 40 per cent of the population of Gaza had been exterminated since October 2023. This is a mistake and I apologise,” she posted on X.
Tondelier maintained that it was not her “intention to deliberately present false figures, obviously” and claimed that she had misunderstood a report from The Lancet, which reported that deaths in Gaza had been underreported by 40 per cent. Still, the leftist politician said that she would not back down from describing the conflict in the region as a “genocide”.
UK’s Guardian Newspaper Quits Elon Musk’s X After Trump Victory over ‘Far-Right Conspiracy Theories and Racism’https://t.co/E7AOlRoYe0
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) November 13, 2024
