The European Federation of Journalists, representing about 295,000 journalists, has decided to suspend its X account. It will stop posting on the social medium as of January 20, 2025 — the inauguration day for the new US president, Donald Trump:

In the aftermath of the American elections, the EFJ noted the threat to democracy and freedom of expression posed by the collusion between the president of the most powerful country in the world, Donald J. Trump, and the richest man in the world, Elon Musk, who is also the owner of the social network X and who has been picked to lead a new “Department of Government Efficiency” (Doge) when Donald J. Trump takes charge as president on 20 January 2025.

“X-odus: @EFJEUROPE account will be frozen, from 20 January 2025” November 26, 2024

But how does the new US administration affect Europe in particular?

Turns out that the issue isn’t international politics but X owner Elon Musk’s thoughts on the changing face of media, which the Federation resolutely rejects:

Just after Trump’s election, Elon Musk, who has been active in American politics as a vocal and financial supporter of Donald J. Trump, said that legacy media is dead, claiming that “most legacy media lied relentlessly to the public”.

“We cannot continue to participate in feeding the social network of a man who proclaims the death of the media and therefore of journalists,” said EFJ President Maja Sever. “The social media site X has become the preferred vector for conspiracy theories, racism, far-right ideas and misogynistic rhetoric. X is a platform that no longer serves the public interest at all, but the particular ideological and financial interests of its owner and his political allies.” “Will be frozen,”

Musk’s point is that new media like X (formerly Twitter) make citizen journalism much easier. Or, as he puts it, “Don’t hate the media, become the media.”

According to General Secretary Ricardo Gutiérrez, “The editorial evolution of X, since its acquisition by Elon Musk, is simply in contradiction with our humanist values, our commitment to press freedom and media pluralism, and our fight against all forms of hatred and discrimination.”

That sounds odd to anyone who has followed the Twitter files revelations, in which it came out that under earlier management, the social medium had been heavily censored by the U.S. federal government on, for example, questions around COVID management.

However, it’s possible that “commitment to press freedom” means something different to the EFJ than it does to the average X user. According to Paul du Quenoy at Tablet, freedom of speech in general is currently in steep decline in Europe: “Tension between free speech rights and the European administrative state has exploded in recent years, particularly with the expansion of social media, nontraditional news sources, and transnational conduits of information.” (December 8, 2024)

Many traditional journalists are going to Jack Dorsey’s new BlueSky, which features many more moderators.