Swedish Radio to abandon Twitter

Sveriges Radio (Swedish Radio) — Sweden’s biggest broadcaster — has announced that it is quitting Twitter, saying that the global social media platform had lost relevance for a Swedish audience. In a blog post, Christian Gillinger, head of social media at Swedish Radio said, “The audience has simply chosen other places to be. And therefore, Sveriges Radio now chooses to deactivate or delete the last remaining accounts.” In doing so, the publicly-funded broadcaster becomes the first major European broadcaster to abandon Twitter on the heels of U.S. broadcasters NPR and PBS and Canada’s CBC. Those broadcasters rejected Twitter’s labeling them “government-funded media.”

Gillinger added concerns that significant staff cuts in Twitter could negatively impact its ability to handle disinformation and hateful content. 

The broadcaster cited a report showing only 7% of Swedes used Twitter daily, compared with 53% for Facebook and 48% for Instagram, and says it would delete most of its accounts and label others inactive, but that its reporters were still free to use Twitter as they please.