Alternative solution the competing platform Bluesky? “We say goodbye” was the short and eloquent farewell post of the Freiburg football team on Elon Musk’s platform X. The club is withdrawing from the particular social networking medium, because it has become indignant with the toxic atmosphere of the alleged exchange of views and the vitriol in the comments of each anonymous user. What followed “Let’s say goodbye” probably confirms the misgivings of the well-known football club. “Dirty team”, “miserable losers” and “leftist scum” were just some of the comments…

It is not only Freiburg that is “turning its back” on the once extremely popular platform. Other teams with fanatical fans, such as Werder Bremen and St. Pauli, have also left. Ever since eccentric billionaire Elon Musk bought Twitter, it has been accused of not doing enough to deal with abusive, racist or anti-Semitic comments on the digital platform.

Positive reactions from many fans

The example of the three famous “Bundesliga” clubs is now followed by other teams or sports federations. Among them: Hansa Rostock and Magdeburg which compete in the second and third divisions of the professional football league, the handball club Melsungen, the German Table Tennis Association, the national volleyball and alpine skiing associations. Speaking to the German News Agency (dpa), Patrick Genzing, communication manager of St. Pauli, states that “our decision (to withdraw from the X platform) is causing the interest of the media internationally, while we are registering very positive reactions”.

On the same wavelength, a representative of the Freiburg team speaks of “very positive reactions from our fans”. Almost all football clubs in Germany are critical of the current image of the X platform. Some have reduced their presence on this particular platform. Still others are reluctant to leave, thinking that they might lose revenue from major promotions. This is especially true for big teams, such as Bayern Munich who currently have seven million followers on their German-language platform X account alone.

As Daniel Neleke, Professor of Communication at the Gymnastics Academy of Cologne, states, “for a global player, it is not an easy decision to leave a networking platform, which he has ‘worked’ for so many years”. On the other hand, however, he points out, “the departure or even the critical treatment of platform X cannot be ruled out to strengthen the club’s brand name”. Freiburg, which had 300,000 followers, did not want to remain on a platform that is “overwhelmed by hate, pressure, conspiracy theories,” as a spokesperson for the group says. “I’m sure other clubs will also start to wonder if they’re losing more than they’re gaining from being on Platform X,” says Daniel Nelleke.

Bluesky as an alternative?

Having already left the X, Werder Bremen, St. Pauli and Freiburg now communicate with their fans through the rival platform Bluesky. Within a few days the number of followers on Bluesky “has multiplied”, says the representative of Saint Pauli, Patrick Genzinc, to add that “although the followers are still less than X, their interactive communication is more intense, while we see much less comments with racist, anti-Semitic or generally abusive content”.

Bluesky was founded in 2019 by Jack Dorsey and its logo is reminiscent of the original Twitter logo. It has already attracted 20 million users, a number that is of course still much smaller than that of platform X. It is noteworthy that those who leave X cite Elon Musk as the main reason for their departure. “He has turned X into a platform of hate,” says the representative of Saint Paul.

Edited by: Yiannis Papadimitriou