Berlin Film Festival Announces It Is Quitting Elon Musk’s X

The Berlin Film Festival has announced it is leaving X on December 31, 2024, after 15 years on the social media platform where it currently has 133.9K Followers

The festival, which will celebrate its 75th edition from February 13 to 24, 2025, posted its decision to leave X on Monday.

“The Berlinale has decided to say goodbye to X on Dec 31, 2024. Thank you for following us here all these years. Stay connected with all things Berlinale on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, and our website. See you there!  #Berlinale,” it said in a post.

The festival did not give an exact reason for its decision to leave the platform but it comes amid long-time concerns about a surge in disinformation and abusive content on X, since Elon Musk took ownership of the platform when it was still called Twitter in 2022.

In recent weeks, the controversial tech tycoon has been regularly posting in support of Donald Trump in his bid to become U.S. president for a second term.

The Berlinale’s decision to leave X, follows in the wake of Venice Film Festival artistic director Alberto Barbera’s announcement last summer that he was quitting X, although the festival’s parent body, the Venice Biennale, continues to post on the platform.

“After the latest statements by the owner of Twitter (or rather, sorry, of X) , I have definitely lost the desire (already weakened) to remain on a platform, the objectives and purposes of which I no longer share,” he wrote at the time, without detailing which particular comments had sparked the move.