Nearly all of the ABC’s (Australia’s National Broadcaster) official Twitter accounts are being shut down, claiming “toxic interactions”.
ABC or the official broadcaster of Australia will now just have only four active accounts left on X: @abcnews, @abcsport, @abchinese, and the flagship @abcaustralia account. Chinese-speaking viewers can watch ABC Chinese on X.
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The deletion of the ABC’s Insiders, News Breakfast, and ABC Politics accounts earlier this year, according to Managing Director David Anderson, had a “beneficial” effect and reduced the amount of unpleasant online exchanges.
David Anderson, managing director of ABC, has informed the press and the public that “all other ABC accounts will be deactivated immediately.”
According to Anderson, the shutdown of the Insiders, News Breakfast, and ABC Politics accounts early this year reduced the number of unpleasant interactions—which had been more common under Musk—and improved viewership of the programmes.
After receiving harassment on Twitter, several prominent journalists—including hosts of the Australian Story and News Breakfast Lisa Millar—left the platform.
Statement given by ABC
When asked about the circumstances that led to this choice, Anderson, told the media, “There are numerous explanations for making this choice.
We want to concentrate our resources and time on the areas where our audiences are because the great majority of their social media followers are on other platforms.
Additionally, we have discovered that deleting individual programme accounts reduces team members’ exposure to the unluckily increasingly common, occasionally harmful interactions. It is worrying that X has scaled back its confidence in security services.
Recent Rebranding of Twitter
In the month of July only Elon Musk had declared to rebrand Twitter’s blue birdie as ‘X’. The rebranding was done to make twitter the social media icon of minimalism and versatility. Elon Musk’s obsession with the idea of ‘X’ is not that old, he has been talking about the everything app since a long time ago and this rebranding of twitter seems to be the very first step towards the very same idea.
Focusing on Other Social Media Platforms
Following NPR and PBS in April, ABC became the third significant public service broadcaster to deactivate its Twitter account. The announcement follows a recent upsurge in the ABC’s focus to producing content for other social media networks including YouTube and Instagram.
According to the Anderson, the great bulk of the ABC’s social media followers were found majorly on the YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok platforms.
He declared, “We intend to concentrate our efforts upon where our viewers are.
For emergency information, the ABC has shut down its @abcemergency X page and advised users to listen to their local radio programme and visit the official ABC webpage.
Along with the @Q+A account being archived, the talk show’s long association with Twitter has come to a conclusion.
Elon Musk has referred to NPR and others as “state media” and soon after the same, they quit Twitter.
The SBS were also referred to as “government-funded media” in April.
Mr. Anderson claims that over the next four years TikTok, a platform recently chastised by a senate committee looking into foreign meddling, will have the strongest audience increase for the ABC. Discontinued ABC accounts on X will be archived, and postings that inform users on where to find pertinent content will be pinned.
Due to the program’s independence and limitations on posting on the ABC news account, it is reported that the Media Watch account for ABC will continue to be active on the site.
