ABC: Giant Broadcasting Corporations Exist X/Twitter Over Abuse

On Wednesday, Australia Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) joined National Public Radio (NPR) and Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) to cull its Twitter presence to save journalists from online hate speeches and harassments. 

 

But the managing director of ABC said, an additional reason is to cut costs. By this, some ABC presence will be permanently blocked on Twitter and limited to only @abcnews @abcsport @ABCChinese @ABCaustralia accounts on the platform.

 

David Anderson released a statement on Wednesday explaining why the News Breakfast, Insiders and ABC Politics accounts have been archived in recent months, stating Twitter is becoming toxic.

 

The ABC is the third big public service broadcaster to remove itself from Twitter, following NPR and PBS in April. They left Twitter after Musk branded them “state-funded and government-funded media”.

In April the BBC reported that ABC and SBS were also labelled “government-funded media”.

 

At that time a spokesperson said the ABC was not planning to follow NPR and PBS by quitting Twitter.

 

“The ABC doesn’t currently have any plans to shut down all its Twitter accounts. We’re liaising with Twitter regarding changes to account verification and labels,” they said.

 

The withdrawal marks the end of the ABC’s rosy relationship with Twitter, which former ABC managing director Mark Scott once called a “joy” to use for breaking news and conversation.

 

Scott was an evangelist of the value of social media in journalism, encouraged journalists to join the platform and promoted the ABC’s use of Twitter for disseminating ABC content, BBC reported.

 

“Twitter reminds me of sitting in the newsroom, watching the feeds come in from the world’s great media organisations: Reuters, Dow Jones and Associated Press, the New York Times, The Guardian, AFP,” he said in 2010.

 

“Now anyone, simply by following their Twitter feeds, can have these great media organisations delivering a stream of updates to them no matter where they are

 

Twitter, which has been rebranded as X under new CEO Elon Musk, has become ineffective and costly according to Anderson.

 

“In February we closed three program accounts, for Insiders, News Breakfast and ABC Politics, and the results of that have been positive,’ Mr Anderson wrote.

 

“The only accounts that will remain on the platform are @abcnews @abcsport @ABCChinese @ABCaustralia.”

 

ABC will move its focus away from Twitter, or X, because of the toxic environment it fosters, managing director David Anderson has said

 

“There are multiple reasons for this decision,” Mr Anderson wrote.

 

“Closing individual accounts helps limit the exposure of team members to the toxic interactions that unfortunately are becoming more prevalent on X.

 

“Concerningly, X has reduced its trust and safety teams.”

 

Instead of adapting to the new atmosphere Musk has created, the ABC will now push their content on other sites like Facebook, YouTube and TikTok.

 

While still posting to their main @abcnews account, their media teams aim to grow ABC’s TikTok audience, which is forecast to be most beneficial for growth.

 

“The vast majority of the ABC’s social media audience is located on official sites on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok, with TikTok forecast to have the strongest growth over the next four years,” Mr Anderson continued.

 

“We want to focus our effort and resources on where our audiences are.”

 

Twitter, as it was known at the time, had become a “cesspool” according to Mr Anderson, who said that he had to refer to several incidents of trolling onto police.

 

The director cited a review of whether the organisation was doing enough to support its employees, saying he was worried about their public-facing staff.

 

“We’re coming to a precipice here, particularly in the discussion around how we can protect our people,” he said before the committee.

 

Things got especially bad during ABC’s 2023 coronation coverage, in the wake of which star Stan Grant stepped away from his position as host of their Q&A program.

 

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