Swiss public broadcasters withdraw from X/Twitter

Swiss public broadcasters RTS and SRF are drastically reducing their communications via the social network X (formerly Twitter).

French-language RTS said that since X was taken over by billionaire Elon Musk in 2022 it no longer corresponded to the company’s journalistic values.

“Dialogue with our followers is no longer possible [on X], because they are being held hostage by trolls and bots and subjected to hate campaigns and defamation,” RTS spokesman Marco Ferrara told the Swiss News Agency Keystone-ATS on Friday.

The withdrawal is scheduled to take place over the next few months. RTS currently manages around 15 accounts on the platform. “We will maintain a presence with the @RadioTeleSuisse corporate account to keep an eye on things and be able to intervene, for example in the event of our identity being stolen,” he added.