Bundesliga: Werder Bremen is leaving Twitter – everyone should do that

Unlike in the current table, FC St. Pauli is in first place this time: In mid-November, the neighborhood club decided that they had had enough of X, formerly Twitter, and Elon Musk. The Bundesliga club’s profile can still be found there, but there have been no new entries there since the farewell announcement.

FC St. Pauli was obviously a role model for their friendly Bundesliga club Werder Bremen. The people of Hamburg happily greet their colleagues on Bluesky with the words: “What’s green and also at Bluesky? Werder Breeeeemen! A warm welcome to our dear friends from the Weser!”

Because Werder Bremen, the second Bundesliga club, has now said goodbye to Elon Musk’s network – you can no longer call it social. The association has been active there since 2008 and writes in a statement: “Since Elon Musk took over the platform, hate speech, hatred against minorities, right-wing extremist posts and conspiracy theories have increased at an incredible pace under the guise of freedom of expression. The radicalization of the platform is due to Elon Musk and his postings himself promoted, among other things, he made transphobic, anti-Semitic and widespread conspiracy narratives.”

It continues: “With the recent radicalization of the platform, a red line has been crossed for the Bundesliga club. The Green-Whites are therefore leaving X and hope that many of the over 600,000 followers will follow the club on Bluesky in the future. “

As expected, the reactions are mixed. On The internet is divided into two very different camps at this point. And to be honest: it won’t come together again.

Again and again you hear the argument that it is important to continue to have a presence on X, precisely because you have a different opinion. Take Robert Habeck, for example: He justified this after his recent comeback with the words: “It’s easy to leave places like this to the loudmouths and populists. But making it easy for yourself can’t be the solution. Not today. Not this week. Not during this time. That’s why I’m back on X.”

I mean: Yes, it can be a solution to make it easy for yourself. It should even be the solution to dealing with X.

Just because there are a lot of people gathering somewhere on the internet on an admittedly nice platform doesn’t mean you have to be there. You can and should leave X to its own devices instead of confronting it. The fewer users remain, the less relevant the network is.

Debates can no longer be held in this environment anyway. And that doesn’t just have something to do with the possible political views of the users, but also has technical reasons. Since Elon Musk sold the blue ticks for user profiles and focused on the contributions of customers willing to pay, any discourse has become impossible. Because if you don’t pay, you’ll be drowned out. Since the subscription model apparently attracts a fairly homogeneous crowd, this creates an extremely monotonous discourse that is no longer worth having at all.

Imagine an argument in which one person is only allowed to whisper and the other person responds with the megaphone while the audience has to listen ten meters away. What nonsense.

In addition – this applies less to football than to politics – Musk can control debates. This recently became very visible in the US election. The algorithm pushes what Musk himself thinks is right into people’s timelines. And, since the owner likes to get involved in foreign politics, this is not limited to the USA. He has already described Habeck and Scholz as “fools” and received applause from his virtual friends. Hearts for agitation – no one needs it.

But back to the footballers: It can be assumed that hundreds of thousands of people are undecided about whether they want to leave X because they can still get relevant information there. For many it will be the latest news from their favorite club. Seven million accounts follow FC Bayern Munich alone.

If top sport, led by the Bundesliga, finally takes a stand against what Werder Bremen calls “the radicalization of the platform”, German football could finally make a difference, at least here – perhaps internationally. Elon Musk also has so much influence on X and with X because there are still a lot of people there. If the network is allowed to degenerate into an echo chamber without a relevant audience, this chapter could finally be closed.

I think: FC St. Pauli and SV Werder Bremen are exactly right with their decision. You don’t have to fight against the windmills of hate on X, you can simply turn your back on them and leave them to their own devices. As I said – there is no discourse there. And you can give yourself the gift of staying in the hope that at some point you will find a common denominator. Twitter is dead and Musk is happy about the users he bought for $44 billion.

It’s time to give this network the cold shoulder – and with your favorite club behind you, it’s much easier.