Australian broadcaster ABC deletes majority of its Twitter accounts due to 'toxic interactions'

Numerous ABC journalists have opted to leave Twitter in recent months after enduring instances of abuse

The Australian public broadcaster ABC is deactivating most of its official accounts on the platform formerly known as Twitter, citing substantial costs and the prevalence of "toxic interactions" on the platform.

David Anderson, the managing director of ABC, said that starting from Wednesday, all Twitter/X accounts except for ABC News, ABC Sport, ABC Chinese, and ABC Australia will be terminated. He pointed to the successful trial closure of three programme accounts earlier this year as one of the multiple reasons contributing to this decision.

Anderson said that shutting down the Insiders, News Breakfast, and ABC Politics accounts resulted in a reduction of toxic interactions, which had become more prominent under Musk's influence.

"In February we closed three program accounts, for Insiders, News Breakfast and ABC Politics, and the results of that have been positive," he said.

Numerous ABC journalists have opted to leave X after enduring instances of abuse, including figures like News Breakfast host Lisa Millar and Australian Story host Leigh Sales.

ABC's announcement follows its recent reallocation of resources toward creating content for alternative social media platforms, such as TikTok and Instagram.

Anderson highlighted that the overwhelming majority of the ABC's social media audience is located on its official pages on platforms like YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, and Instagram, and that TikTok is anticipated to experience the most significant growth over the upcoming four years.

He also mentioned that the introduction of extra fees had contributed to the newly renamed platform becoming progressively more expensive to use.

News director Justin Stevens added that the ABC was currently in the process of testing Meta's new platform, Threads, and would assess the possibility of expanding its engagement on that platform.

The ABC accounts on X that have been discontinued will be archived, and pinned posts will be in place to inform users about where they can access relevant content.

The ABC's Media Watch account will continue to exist on the platform. This is because the programme operates independently and is restricted from posting on the ABC news account.

In response to ABC's decision, Musk accused the broadcaster of embracing censorship.

"Well of course they prefer censorship-friendly social media. The Australian public does not," he tweeted.

ABC is the third major public service broadcaster to distance itself from X, following the footsteps of NPR and PBS in April. NPR and PBS made the move after being labelled "state media" by Musk.

The ABC, SBS, and the BBC were also referred to as "government-funded media" in April.

"Our goal is simply to be as truthful and accurate as possible," Musk told the BBC after the publisher challenged its "government-funded media" label. The labels were subsequently removed.

An ABC spokesperson said at that time that the company had no intentions of following NPR and PBS in leaving Twitter - as it was then.

ABC's decision comes a month after the company announced nearly 100 job cuts as part of a significant reorganisation towards a digital-first approach. Over the next five years, the ABC will channel increased resources into generating content specifically tailored for digital platforms, encompassing ABC iview, ABC Listen and ABC News.