Werder Bremen are the second Bundesliga club to quit social media platform X in less than a week.
The German outfit made the announcement to depart with immediate effect, calling out the site’s owner Elon Musk. Their German account has almost 540,000 followers, with their English account amassing just over 37,000 followers. Werder announced the decision after a club meeting late on Monday, following St. Pauli’s decision last week to also jump to the Bluesky platform.
The social media site X, formerly called Twitter, has seen a mini exodus of high-profile individuals off late, with many celebrities and people with huge followings leaving for Bluesky, Threads and Mastodon in the run up to and aftermath of the US Presidential election.
Record Sports breaks down why these two football club’s have made the move?
Why did Werder Bremen quit X?
Musk is a big Trump supporter and will now head the incoming president’s Department of Government Efficiency. Scrutiny has grown of the role played by X in allegedly platforming hate speech, far-right conspiracy theories and racism in the build up to and after the US election. Musk has always denied this and claims the format of his social media site is to further enable freedom of speech and reduce the threat of censorship.
One Tuesday, Werder announced it’s exit from X claiming an increase in “hate speech, hatred towards minorities, right-wing extremist posts and conspiracy theories, all under the guise of freedom of speech”.
The full statement reads: “SV Werder Bremen’s executive board have decided that the club will leave the social media platform ‘X’ (formerly Twitter). The announcement was made by Klaus Filbry, CEO of SV Werder, during the club’s annual general meeting on Monday.
“Since Elon Musk took over the platform, hate speech, hatred towards minorities, right-wing extremist posts and conspiracy theories have been allowed to spread at an incredible pace, all under the guise of freedom of speech. The radicalisation of the platform is being actively driven by Elon Musk and his personal posts, which include transphobic and anti-semitic comments, as well as the spreading of conspiracy narratives.
“Next to nothing is currently being monitored on the platform. The algorithms and decision making at X are entirely non-transparent processes. Additionally, Elon Musk is utilising the social network as a political weapon, as seen recently during the course of the US election.
“SV Werder Bremen are taking a clear stance against hatred, hate speech, discrimination and exclusion. The Green-Whites are proud to stand for diversity, freedom and democracy, as well as for cohesion and solidarity in society.
With the recent radicalisation of the platform, a line has been crossed for the club. The Green-Whites are therefore leaving X effective immediately and hope that our more than 600,000 followers will follow the club on Bluesky in the future.”
Why did St Pauli quit X?
The socialist Bundesliga club announced their departure on November 14 for the same reasons. ‘The Kiezkicker’ said the site had turned into a “hate machine” that could negatively influence upcoming election campaigns. “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,” an official statement added.
It goes on: “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. 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.”
The club thanked its members for their support and calls on its followers on the platform to switch to Bluesky. FC St. Pauli’s English account also moved to Bluesky.
What is social media website Bluesky?
Bluesky – a very similar-looking platform which calls itself “social media as it should be” – has picked up millions of new users in the past few weeks. The site been dubbed a “refuge” from alleged far-right activism on X. Alternatives such as Threads and Mastodon have also been created.