First to go: Bundesliga club decides to leave X over platform's policies

German Bundesliga club St. Pauli has decided to leave X, formerly known as Twitter, in protest of the platform's policies following its acquisition by Elon Musk, reports Bild.

• St. Pauli comebacks to the Bundesliga after 14 years. Fans celebrated the success on the field

“The spread of racism and conspiracy theories goes unchallenged or is even moderated. Insults and threats are rarely punished and are presented as supposed freedom of expression,” the club stated in its announcement.

The club also cited Musk's close ties to newly elected U.S. President Donald Trump as a reason for abandoning the platform.

The link to X has been removed from St. Pauli’s official website, but their account will remain active on the platform. The club explained that the account holds 11 years’ worth of content, which they view as historically valuable.

Instead of X, St. Pauli will now post updates on Bluesky, a social network launched by Twitter co-founder and former CEO Jack Dorsey. As of late September, Bluesky had surpassed 1 million users.

Since Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter in 2022 and its rebranding to X, the platform has faced increasing criticism from numerous public figures and organizations.