Swedish daily DN halts posts on X over 'extreme' climate

Sweden's newspaper of reference, Dagens Nyheter (DN), said on Friday it would stop publishing its articles on Elon Musk's social media platform X, citing a "harsh and extreme" climate.

DN's announcement followed similar moves this week by Britain's The Guardian and Spain's La Vanguardia.

"Since Elon Musk took over, the platform has increasingly merged with his and Donald Trump's political ambitions, while the climate on X has grown more harsh and extreme," editor-in-chief Peter Wolodarski said in an article posted on X.

"Therefore, we will not publish anything on there from our official accounts for the time being," Wolodarski said.

Musk has consistently courted controversy with his use of X, particularly during the recent United States presidential election when he endorsed victorious Republican candidate Donald Trump.

The tech billionaire and right-wing conspiracy theorist used his personal account, boasting nearly 205 million followers, to sway voters in favour of Trump.

His incendiary and misleading posts were criticised for cranking up the political temperature.

Musk has also gutted trust and safety teams at X scaled back content moderation efforts and restored known conspiracy theorists to the platform since purchasing it for $44 billion in 2022.

Sweden's public radio Sveriges Radio (SR) ceased its activities on the platform in April 2023 after Musk's takeover, saying the platform then known as Twitter had "changed" and lost relevance.

That move followed similar decisions by US and Canadian public broadcasters.

Sweden's biggest tabloid, Aftonbladet, also stopped publishing on X in September 2023, prioritising instead its presence on Tiktok, which has also been accused of spreading disinformation.

Aftonbladet news editor Karin Schmidt called X a "lost platform".

"In contrast to X, I think it's important that we're on Tiktok, where we can be a counter-current to fake news," she told Dagens Nyheter.