On November 14, 2024, FC St Pauli became the first major football club to withdraw from the social media platform formerly known as Twitter. In the statement on their website, the club stated: >Since taking over Twitter, as the platform was previously known, Musk has converted X into a hate machine. Racism and conspiracy theories are allowed to spread unchecked and even curated. Insults and threats are seldom sanctioned and are sold as freedom of speech.
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>In addition, following his election victory Donald Trump has picked Musk to head up a new government department. Musk was a major backer of the Trump campaign and also used X for this purpose. It is to be assumed that X will also promote authoritarian, misanthropic and far-right content during the forthcoming German election campaign, this manipulating the public discourse.
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>FC St. Pauli had already curbed its use of X and increasingly posted political statements in support of diversity and inclusion to make a stand against hate. Now the club is ceasing its activity on X. The account will no longer be used, but the content of the last 11 years will remain online in view of its contemporary historical value. Since that time, other Bundesliga sides have followed suit - Werder Bremen, Freiburg and Bundesliga 2 side SV Darmstadt 98 have ceased activity on the platform - and we're asking our club to take a lead among Premier League clubs and do the same. Elon Musk is an extremely dangerous man. His Nazi salute at Trump's inauguration was shocking only in the context of the event at which he felt able to perform it. In terms of Musk's personality and political journey, it was not a surprise. Musk has actively promoted the most extreme right wing viewpoints to his 200m+ audience on Twitter and has spent months showing us all quite clearly who he is and what he believes in. Elon Musk controls what was one of the most important communications tools on the planet. It offers him the ability to manipulate the way that people perceive the world like a sound engineer at a mixing desk - and he is not using this power for the greater good of humanity. Quite the opposite, he is using it to advance the very worst agendas - algorithmically and economically promoting hatred and division, whilst suppressing the ability of progressive voices to be heard and connect with one another. He has removed moderation and turned the platform into the hate machine described by St Pauli's statement. In response to the backlash over his Nazi salute, Musk mocked the criticism "Frankly, they need better dirty tricks. The 'everyone is Hitler' attack is sooo tired.". It is impossible to avoid using the word Nazi however, because that is what he is - but he does have a point. Over many years there absolutely has been an element of people crying wolf. People have repeatedly accused politicians with whom they do not agree of being fascists until the word has lost all meaning. The moral of Aesop's fable was not, however, that there was no wolf and we have now moved into the part of the tale where the boy gets eaten. Musk this week appeared by video link at the neo-Nazi AFD party's conference, looking like Bob Flag's Big Brother as he loomed above the crowd on a giant screen. There can be no further doubt, no equivocation about what he is and what he is using the power afforded to him by control of the Twitter platform for. He is promoting voices espousing white supremacy, racism, misogyny, homophobia, imperialism and ultra-nationalism and is trying to destabilise of democratically elected governments and interfere in national elections. He is a risk to societal cohesion, to democracy and to peoples' lives. Musk only has this immense power because we give it to him and we, the rest of global society, need to take it away. Sports fans make up a significant proportion of social media users. As much as 25% of all social media conversations are about sports. The intersection of sports and social media has made it a fundamental part of the relationship between supporters, their team, players and community and this means that sports teams have a social responsibility in which platforms they use for this engagement. In continuing to use Twitter and not operate an official BlueSky account, AFC Bournemouth are exposing their supporters to the malevolent content that Musk uses the site to promote. It enables them to be targets for his manipulation and misinformation. We should be able to interact with our club without having to use his hate machine and be exposed to the vile cesspit that he has turned a platform we used to love into - and we should not have to use other platforms owned by tech oligarchs like Mark Zuckerberg where they are following suit in the permission of hateful content and removal of moderation and fact-checking. In remaining on Twitter, the club is condoning the hate that the site is now used to promote. You cannot back the Premier League's 'No Room For Racism' campaign and remain on a neo-nazi owned and operated social media platform that is used to promote racism and white supremacists. You cannot condone the neo-nazi owner of the platform, ask fans to interact with you on that platform over the tannoy on matchdays and be sincere in anti-racism campaigns. The hypocrisy of doing so is clear and evident. You cannot back the Rainbow Laces campaign and remain on a platform that algorithmically promotes and refuses to moderate homophobia and the dehumanisation of trans people. Twitter is not a safe space for the club's supporters. It is time to leave and to help your supporters that remain there because of the club's presence to leave. It is time to help build the community away from Musk's Twitter. We know that the club will be deriving an income from its engagement on Twitter. We know that BlueSky is a tiny platform in comparison. We know that it does not have the reach or the significance of Twitter - but nothing will change if nobody changes and it is imperative that change happens. We are imploring the club to help break the inertia will keep people in place if we are not proactive in seeking change. If nothing else, it is surely time to see an official BlueSky account created by the club. There is an official Twitter page, Facebook page, Instagram page, Threads page, TikTok page and LinkedIn page. The cost of posting updates on BlueSky as well is insignificant. Rednblack has replicated the club's Twitter account to BlueSky to help this but we need an official club presence on social media that is not billionaire controlled and manipulated, where fans can be free of the hate and disinformation. That at least will facilitate a move away from Twitter for those that want to move but do not want to lose contact with the official account and will help build the community on BlueSky. AFC Bournemouth leaving Twitter will not bring Elon Musk down - but if you are not part of the solution you are a part of the problem - and we are asking, imploring, our club to stop being a part of the problem, and help us all to be a part of the solution.
