Because of hatred and incitement
Robert Koch Institute leaves X platform
01/13/2025 – 12:26 p.mReading time: 2 min.
After dozens of universities left, the RKI has now also announced its exit from X. The institute will use other services for information in the future.
The Robert Koch Institute (RKI) has announced its departure from Elon Musk’s Platform X. “Dear followers, the Robert Koch Institute joins the universities and research institutions that are leaving X and will no longer operate this channel,” writes the RKI.
It is said that the facility’s information can be found on other channels. In the future, the RKI says it wants to spread its topics on the Bluesky, Mastodon, Instagram, Linkedin and YouTube platforms.
More than 60 German-speaking universities and research institutions had previously said goodbye to the short message service X. They justified this in a joint statement by saying that the orientation of the platform controlled by US billionaire Musk was incompatible with its core values such as “cosmopolitanism, scientific integrity, transparency and democratic discourse”.
“The values that promote diversity, freedom and science are no longer present on the platform,” the statement said. The changes to X, for example the algorithmic reinforcement of right-wing populist content, made further use unacceptable.
X and company owner Musk have been increasingly criticized for months. It is about the accusation of the unhindered spread of hate messages and disinformation via the communications service used worldwide.
Musk himself recently repeatedly intervened in the domestic politics of Germany and other European countries with comments on X. Among other things, he called for the AfD to be voted for in the federal election in February.
Last Thursday evening, Musk discussed on his platform with AfD leader Alice Weidel and again promoted the AfD. The entrepreneur is now also a special advisor to US President-elect Donald Trump.