‘A hate machine’: St Pauli become first major football club to leave X

St Pauli have become the first major football club to leave X, describing the social media site as a "hate machine" and expressing concern that it may influence the outcome of the forthcoming German election.

Scrutiny of the role played by X in platforming hate speech, far-right conspiracy theories and racism has intensified since Donald Trump's victory in last week's US election. Trump was vociferously supported by the entrepreneur Elon Musk, who bought X – then known as Twitter – in October 2022. Musk was given part-control of a new "department of government efficiency" this week.

The traditionally left-wing Bundesliga club have ceased operating their account and urged fans to switch to Bluesky, an alternative application whose user base is believed to have grown by about 750,000 in the past 24 hours. "Musk has converted X into a hate machine," part of the club's statement read.

Germany is to hold a snap election in February after Olaf Scholz's three-party governing coalition collapsed last week. There is concern about the ground that the AfD, a far-right anti-immigration party that secured 10% of the vote at the most recent federal election in 2021, may gain and the influence sites such as X may wield.

"Following his election victory Donald Trump has picked Musk to head up a new government department," St Pauli's statement continued. "Musk was a major backer of the Trump campaign and also used X for this purpose." The club said they feared the site could end up "manipulating the public discourse" during the German election campaign.

St Pauli said their previous posts on X, where the club has more than 250,000 followers, would remain online for historical value. The club said dialogue with their members had been key to the decision to withdraw from that space and move to Bluesky.

On Wednesday the Guardian announced that it would no longer post from the X platform using official accounts, citing the "often disturbing content" found there.

The Guardian has approached X for comment.