The Australian tax-payer funded far-left Activist Broadcasting Corporation (formerly known as Our ABC) is leaving Twitter for Meta.
X News Daily drew attention to the move, saying, “From today, all but 4 of ABC’s accounts will be discontinued. They’ve cited switching to focus on Youtube and TikTok, and an “increase in toxic interactions” on X.”
An article from the AUD $3 billion+ tax-payer funded organisation said they were repositioning to better serve their audience.
Giving an insight into who that audience is, Insiders, News Breakfast and ABC Politics accounts – all hard left-leaning – have all been discontinued.
While managing director, David Anderson, said ABC News, ABC Sport, ABC Chinese, and ABC Australia, will stay, he didn’t commit to keeping them active.
Anderson used the ABC’s target audience to justify the change, saying, most of the “ABC’s social media audience is located on official sites on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok.”
In an apparent jab at X, and Elon Musk, the ABC director, talked up the Chinese Communist Party-owned platform TikTok.
“Reduced activity” – ditching Twitter – “will allow staff to focus on the accounts [read: social media platforms] that overwhelmingly provide the most value.”
For example, TikTok deserved more attention, because it was “forecast to have the strongest growth over the next four years.”
By social media platforms, he also meant those who are better aligned with the largely left-leaning ABC’s increasingly Woke worldview.
This is evidenced by Anderson saying “An increase in ‘toxic interactions’ on Twitter, was ‘influencing the move.”
The article didn’t bother to define “toxic interactions,” nor did Anderson offer evidence to back up his claim.
Alternatively, news director, Justin Stevens said, the ABC was testing Threads, Meta’s version of Twitter, saying, they “will be considering increasing its presence there.”
Elon Musk, offering his thoughts on the decision, did not mince his words.
The X-Corp boss fired back, “Well of course they prefer censorship-friendly social media. The Australian public does not.”
Other personalities were on board, and over the target.
Australian columnist, Rita Panahi implying that the shift from X to Meta was no surprise, wrote, “The ABC receives more than a billion a year from Australian taxpayers to be an unrelenting propaganda machine for every Leftwing cause.”
Caldron Pool founder Ben Davis quipped, “They want to speak AT the taxpayer, not with them.”
Pointing to X’s use of Community Notes, instead of Facebook’s “fact-checkers,” one user responded, “The ABC Australia pulls out of Twitter because its constant misinformation is being called out by the people of Australia.”
With Meta “ending news availability on Facebook and Instagram, in Canada,” the ABC’s decision looks petty and vindictive.
FB and Instagram’s news blackout comes into effect, following Canada’s Online News Act, Bill C-18, which became law in June.
“Canadians will no longer be able to view or post news content on Facebook or Instagram,” explained CBC.
Critics have called the Canadian blackout, “depraved,” and deliberately “Orwellian.”
The ABC’s decision to ditch X – especially when you note the usual content pushed by the accounts which were shifted to Meta – is proof the ABC only like the sound of their own voices.
No wonder, Musk putting the X into a free X-change of ideas has them on the run.
This apparent tantrum gives further weight to arguments for why the ABC – as it now exists, and because of how it now functions – should be defunded, and downsized. If not completely disbanded.
