Enda Brady: UK correspondent on The Guardian making the decision to stop posting on X from official accounts

British news outlet The Guardian will no longer be posting on Elon Musk's X (formerly Twitter) going forward.

The news organisation has voiced concerns with the platform's content - and believe the risks now outweigh the benefits.

UK correspondent Enda Brady says many in the media industry feel that X has gotten more toxic since Elon Musk bought the platform. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
In the Brady UK correspondence with I Sayinda.

Speaker 2 (00:03):
Hey, Heather, lovely to speak to you again.

Speaker 1 (00:05):
What do you make of the Guardian taking itself off Twitter?

Speaker 2 (00:08):
I absolutely applaud them. It's a toxic platform. It has
been for a very long time. The abuse of people,
the hounding of people. I just a personal anecdote. I
think back to when I was ill and I couldn't walk,
and I was in bed and my daughter was taking
me to the bathroom. I gave one interview to a
radio station in Ireland because the producer is a very

(00:29):
good friend, and I was quite concerned that if this
new COVID variant had left me on my knees, what
was it going to do to vulnerable people like my sister.
So I gave that interview and within an hour I
had people wishing me dead. You know, when you're flatting
your back in bed, you're scrolling on a phone and
there's nothing else to do. I just I remember thinking

(00:50):
at the time, Wow, this is a really, really toxic platform.
Since Musk has taken over, it's got worse. Yeah, I
can see why the guard they're doing it. And look,
I guess people would say, oh, you know if you're
a journalist and you're sharing information, you need as many
platforms as possible. No, you don't. Nobody needs Twitter in
their life or X or whatever he calls it. It

(01:12):
is such a toxic, negative place. It's just like, you know,
imagine being that perpetually angry every hour of the day.

Speaker 1 (01:20):
Yeah too. Right. It's interesting though, because obviously what the
Guardian could have done is I mean, I still retain
my Twitter account. I just don't. I don't read what
any very occasionally I'll go and see, you know, if
I need to see some stupid thing that some stupid
New Zealand politicians tweeted out, then I have the access
to that because I have an account, right, But I
need to look at what people say to me because
I don't need that negativity in my life. But why

(01:41):
didn't the Guardian choose to do that, just post it
stuff out and never look at it again. Why did
they take it? It feels like it taking a stands
a stand.

Speaker 2 (01:49):
Yeah, they're taking a stand against Musk. I think they're
just saying enough is an off and look what we're
seeing this guy. He's not American. You know. We were
told old Labor Party people from the UK, interfering in
the selections. You've got a guy going around giving a
million dollars out of people to vote for Trump. I mean,
you couldn't make this stuff up. So I think what
they're doing is just taking a stand. They don't want

(02:11):
their name and their brand associated with Twitter or him.
And there are plenty of other places out there, and
you know, I read the Guardian like I read every
other newspaper. They're very good. They've been going since the
eighteen hundreds and they are a bastion of British journalism.
You know, it is not a bad newspaper.

Speaker 1 (02:28):
No, it's an excellent newspaper. Actually, all right, tell me
about this dynamic pricing at this English public in the
London pub, because I don't mind it. You order after team,
you get your beer for four backs.

Speaker 2 (02:39):
No, you get four books added onto your beer. This
is outrageous. Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, dynamic pricing. So so
hang on, let me just so. Basically, you buy a
beer at nine to fifty nine pm and at sixteen dollars.
This is O'Neill's in Soho in London. Yeah, claimed to
be an Irish pub. It's about as Irish as a Penguin,
So sixteen dollars a beer at nine to fifty nine,

(03:00):
you order the exact same product a minute later, and
they're now putting on a four dollars sor charge, so
your beer suddenly becomes twenty dollars. And they're saying that
this is, you know, in keeping with prices in the area.
And I think what they're doing is they're cashing in
on the fact that there's probably some luxurious hotels in
that area that if you go for a beer very

(03:21):
late at night, they will charge you twenty dollars. But
you're sitting in a five star hotel surrounded with very
glamorous people, and O'Neill's, which is a bang average irish
and inverted commas pub. I think they're cashing in shamelessly.
I think it's really really wrong. We've seen dynamic pricing
with the Oasis tickets here, basically fleecing working people, and

(03:42):
I real concern that other premises will think, hang on,
they're doing it, we can do it.

Speaker 1 (03:48):
Yeah, And not to mention, eighteen o'clock at night, you
probably quite drunk, can't you, so you don't realize what
just happened to you.

Speaker 2 (03:55):
Yeah, And it's not advertised anywhere. There's no you know,
it's not like they tell you coming in that you
know by the way we whacker our prices up after
ten o'clock. I mean, I don't know. I just honestly
I'm dreaming of Christmas in Ireland and our local pub,
Martiv is the best pub in Ireland and I can't
wait to get back there. And you get the best skinness,
the best skinness in the world, and you get change

(04:15):
out of ten dollars.

Speaker 1 (04:16):
How good we're all dreaming of Christmas. Inda, thanks so
much Into Brady, UK Correspondent.

Speaker 2 (04:21):
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