End of an era for the presence of its main progressive forces on (formerly Twitter). In a coordinated move, which had been preparing for weeks, the Social Democrats (), the Greens and the Left () announced on Monday morning their final withdrawal from the platform of .
“Gateway of Misinformation and Chaos”
The reasoning behind the decision is common to all: X has turned into a field where democratic dialogue is no longer possible. “X has fallen into disarray in recent years,” the parties’ latest posts say. “While political debate thrives through dialogue that informs citizens, X increasingly promotes disinformation. For this reason, we will no longer post from this account.”
The withdrawal does not only concern the official party profiles, but also the accounts of the respective parliamentary groups. At the same time, leading figures such as the leader of the Left, Jan van Aken, and the president of the Green parliamentary group, Katarina Drege, also announced their departure.
The #WirVerlassenX initiative
This movement was organized under the hashtag #WirVerlassenX (We abandon X) and is an initiative of the executive director of the Greens, Pega Endalatian. Speaking to Table Media, Endalatian was disarming: “X has become a gateway for misinformation and an aggressive culture of dialogue. We want to discuss taking into account different perspectives, but in X this is no longer possible.”
The parties are now urging their followers to seek them out on alternative platforms such as Instagram and BlueSky, hoping that the move will cause a “ripple effect” (domino effect) among their ordinary members.
Musk’s “transformation” and the reactions
Since October 2022, when Elon Musk bought the platform for $44 billion, X has undergone radical changes. Researchers point out that content with racist and anti-Semitic comments is now rarely restricted, while the reach of far-right accounts has skyrocketed.
In fact, the tension peaked after Musk’s recent appearances alongside Donald Trump, where some of his gestures were interpreted by critics as Nazi salutes, causing an uproar in Germany.
Who remain on the platform
Despite the mass exodus of the center-left, the political landscape in German X remains polarized. While government institutions (such as the Ministry of Justice) have suspended their activity, parties such as the far-right AfD and Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s Christian Democrats (CDU) remain highly active, exploiting the vacuum left by their political rivals.
