Stories from Swindon Link will no longer be posted to Twitter.
The decision to abandon Elon Musk's social media platform was announced by Link editor and proprietor Jamie Hill in the Link's sister publication The Ink.
Swindon Link retains its Facebook and Instagram presences, and has also established a new presence on another platform, Bluesky, which can be found here.
Describing Twitter, now officially known as X, as a cesspool, Jamie Hill said: "As a news organisation, which covers two different publications, it is essential that we are trusted and are seen as good quality and accurate in our reporting.
"We have never relied on salacious clickbait to draw people in to read our stories and believe that we need to adhere to a higher standard of journalism, otherwise what is the point of what we do?
"But for the past year we have found Twitter/X, or whatever it’s called nowadays, to be an increasingly volatile platform and it’s getting worse.
"It’s hard to be a trusted news organisation when your news stories are sandwiched between one story where Elon Musk is calling for the overthrow of the UK Government using a false narrative about grooming gangs and another story where an OnlyFans ‘celebrity’ is espousing the false anti-vax narrative and that covid was a massive con.
Swindon Link retains its Facebook and Instagram presences, and has also established a new presence on another platform, Bluesky, which can be found here.
Describing Twitter, now officially known as X, as a cesspool, Jamie Hill said: "As a news organisation, which covers two different publications, it is essential that we are trusted and are seen as good quality and accurate in our reporting.
"We have never relied on salacious clickbait to draw people in to read our stories and believe that we need to adhere to a higher standard of journalism, otherwise what is the point of what we do?
"But for the past year we have found Twitter/X, or whatever it’s called nowadays, to be an increasingly volatile platform and it’s getting worse.
"It’s hard to be a trusted news organisation when your news stories are sandwiched between one story where Elon Musk is calling for the overthrow of the UK Government using a false narrative about grooming gangs and another story where an OnlyFans ‘celebrity’ is espousing the false anti-vax narrative and that covid was a massive con.
"We currently have nearly 10,000 followers (9,877 to be exact) so it is definitely not an easy decision for us to make to sacrifice that much reach."
He added: "In this modern age ‘reach’ is all-important in trying to get your voice heard amongst the cacophony of other voices.
"But the platform has made it increasingly difficult for us to operate in. Every day there’s just simply too much division and misinformation on the site so it causes us reputational damage to have our stories in amongst all of that.
"It’s like trying to be a beacon of integrity when you’re surrounded by manure on all sides."
He added: "In this modern age ‘reach’ is all-important in trying to get your voice heard amongst the cacophony of other voices.
"But the platform has made it increasingly difficult for us to operate in. Every day there’s just simply too much division and misinformation on the site so it causes us reputational damage to have our stories in amongst all of that.
"It’s like trying to be a beacon of integrity when you’re surrounded by manure on all sides."
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