SPD boss deletes her account: Saskia Esken breaks up with Twitter

A few weeks ago, SPD General Secretary Kühnert closed his Twitter account and criticized the culture of discussion on the platform.

SPD boss deletes her account: Saskia Esken breaks up with Twitter

A few weeks ago, SPD General Secretary Kühnert closed his Twitter account and criticized the culture of discussion on the platform. Now party leader Esken is also deleting her profile. She justifies the step with the platform's lax fight against fake news, insults and hate speech.

The SPD leader Saskia Esken is withdrawing from Twitter because she dislikes the development there with hatred, hate speech and disinformation. "I've been connected to you here for 10 years. I had good debates and actions with many," she wrote on the platform. Nevertheless, she will leave Twitter.

As a reason, she referred to a guest post by her on "Zeit.de". "The economy of attention and outrage, as we experience it on social media today, damages our political culture. Hate and hate speech threaten social cohesion, campaigns for disinformation and the manipulation of public opinion endanger our democracy," Esken writes in the article.

"Twitter does nothing against fake profiles, acts extremely carelessly when dealing with reported criminal content such as insults or incitement to hatred and does not stop unlawful Twitter bans even after clear judgments. The announced takeover of Twitter by Elon Musk will definitely not be the platform make it a not-for-profit company."

At the same time, Esken complains of a certain powerlessness: "Because the fight against these phenomena contradicts the economic interests of the platforms, our appeals for self-control and our attempts at regulation are more or less in vain."

SPD General Secretary Kevin Kühnert had already deleted his Twitter account in September. The poor discussion culture on the platform leads to "false conclusions and errors in political decisions," Kühnert justified his withdrawal. At least he has found in himself that he has a distorted perception of reality if he spends too much time on Twitter, he told the editorial network Germany.