MW Bundesbank becomes latest German institution to leave Elon Musk's X
By Clive McKeef
Central bank joins Germany's defense and foreign ministry in leaving service
Germany's central bank, the Bundesbank, on Friday became the latest of the country's institutions to stop posting on X, the social-media service owned by Elon Musk.
On Friday, the Bundesbank said it was leaving the site formerly called Twitter but said it would stay active on Microsoft's $(MSFT)$ LinkedIn, Meta Platforms' $(META)$ Instagram and Facebook and Alphabet $(GOOGL)$ YouTube.
The Bundesbank did not elaborate on the departure.
Back in December, Musk endorsed the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party in a post on X and since then has used his platform to criticize German politicians, calling center-left German Chancellor Olaf Scholz a "fool" and touting the far right AfD party as the only force that can "save" the country.
Musk, the world's wealthiest man who is a supporter and adviser of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, held a live chat on X with Alice Weidel, the AfD's candidate for chancellor in Germany's upcoming election.
Also read: German stocks are quietly rallying. An election's coming up.
On Thursday, the trade unions GEW, which represents educators and teachers, and Verdi announced they were deleting their X presence, as did the Federal Court of Justice.
On Wednesday, the German defense ministry and the Bundeswehr national army said they will suspend their accounts on X, citing an inability to have factual debate on the site according to an emailed statement reported by Bloomberg.
"The main reason for the decision is that, according to the defense ministry's assessment, the objective exchange of arguments is becoming increasingly difficult," the ministry said in a statement announcing its exit from X.
Germany's foreign ministry also said Tuesday it would no longer post relevant information on X and called on followers to switch to its account on alternative platform Bluesky.
See also: What is Bluesky, the fast-growing social platform welcoming fleeing X users?
X is not publicly traded but Fidelity, which holds a small stake, has aggressively marked down its valuation of the service since Musk's $44 billion acquisition.
Bloomberg's billionaire index values Musk's wealth at $439 billion, thanks to his ownership of stakes in Tesla $(TSLA)$ as well as the privately held SpaceX.
-Clive McKeef
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January 17, 2025 07:24 ET (12:24 GMT)
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