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Germany’s defence ministry said Wednesday it was suspending activities on social media platform X, which is accused of enabling the spread of disinformation under its owner Elon Musk.
The ministry said it “will no longer post proactively on the channel for the foreseeable future”, justifying the move by saying that “the fact-based exchange of arguments is becoming increasingly difficult” on the platform.
The ministry is the latest of a host of public institutions in Germany to have announced they will suspend activity on the platform or leave it altogether.
Last week, a group of more than 60 German universities said they were turning their backs on the site. Its “current direction is not compatible with the basic values of the institutions concerned — openness to the world, scientific integrity, transparency and democratic discourse”, they said.
The German defence ministry said that it “reserved the right to react on X in exceptional cases, such as to react to disinformation”.
It said it would in future use a channel on WhatsApp, owned by rival US tech company Meta, to proactively share information.
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