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Prime Minister Stephan Weil (SPD) in the Lower Saxony state parliament
Photo: IMAGO/Bernd Elmenthaler
The short message service Twitter has been under constant criticism since it was taken over by Elon Musk – but it has also experienced a lot of upswing.
Lower Saxony's Prime Minister Stephan Weil (SPD) has now announced his withdrawal from the network.
The official account of the Lower Saxony state government will also be deleted.
"Lack of controls & lack of verifications are increasingly leading to the spread of hate & hate speech, misinformation & conspiracy stories," Weil tweeted.
"I don't have to be there." The user account will be deleted on Tuesday.
The same applies to the channel of the state government.
Weil is the first prominent German politician to say goodbye to Twitter after Musk took over.
In the past, however, Economics Minister Robert Habeck (Greens) and SPD General Secretary Kevin Kühnert had also announced their withdrawal.
Both had criticized the poor culture of debate and constant excitement in the network.
Spreading hate 'under the guise of 'free speech''
According to the State Chancellery in Hanover, Weil has been on hold since the beginning of November to await the development of the network after Elon Musk's takeover.
However, the new Twitter strategy was "apparently deliberately designed to avoid any form of control and to let the spread of 'hate speech' run free under the guise of 'free speech'".
Weil, on the other hand, wants to remain active on Facebook and Instagram.
In addition, a registration with the Twitter competitor Mastodon, which was developed in Germany, is currently being examined, his social media team announced on Twitter.
Since Musk's takeover of Twitter, there have been widespread concerns that more hate speech and abuse could end up on the platform under his leadership and after the major job cuts he implemented.
Researchers had also recorded a sharp increase in hate speech since Musk announced an amnesty for formerly blocked Twitter accounts.
Musk had raised such concerns himself with repeated criticism, claiming that Twitter had overly restricted freedom of speech on the platform.
mrc/dpa
