The ABC drops X social media accounts, but will post on TikTok, Instagram and Facebook

The public broadcaster will stop using many of its official accounts on Elon Musk-owned platform X, but will continue to post on TikTok, Instagram and Facebook.

The ABC has blamed toxic interactions, lack of trust and increasing costs for its move to stop using many accounts on social media platform X (formerly Twitter), however it will continue to post on other platforms including TikTok, Facebook and Instagram.

On Wednesday, managing director David Anderson sent an email to all staff declaring that the public broadcaster was abandoning most of its accounts on Elon Musk’s platform X, however he praised Chinese-owned platform TikTok and said the public broadcaster would continue to be prevalent on some social media platforms to engage audiences.

“The vast majority of the ABC’s social media audience is located on official sites on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok, with TikTok forecast to have the strongest growth over the next four years,” he said.

“We want to focus our effort and resources on where our audiences are.”

The move comes after the ABC closed three program accounts earlier this year and Mr Anderson said after seeing positive results a similar move had been adopted for other ABC accounts.

“In February the ABC closed three program accounts and the results from that have been positive, with negligible reduction in referral traffic from Twitter to ABC content,” he said.

“The vast majority of the ABC’s social media audience is located on other platforms and we want to focus our effort and resources where our audiences are.

“X is introducing charges which are making the platform increasingly costly to use.”

The X accounts that the ABC stopped using earlier this year included Insiders, news breakfast and its politics account.

Despite these latest changes the ABC will continue to use selected accounts on X, including @abcnews, @abcsport, @abcchinese and @abcaustralia.

The accounts on the Elon Musk-owned X that the ABC stopped using earlier this year included Insiders, news breakfast and its politics account. Picture: AFP

Mr Anderson outlined reasons for keeping each of these accounts including that they were important in engaging audiences, however he noted that scaling back the use of accounts on X would prevent abuse being directed at employees.

“We have found that closing individual program accounts helps limit the exposure of team members to the sometimes toxic interactions that unfortunately are becoming more prevalent,” an ABC statement said.

“Concerningly, X has reduced its trust and safety teams.”

Some of the ABC accounts on X that will no longer be used have pinned messages at the top that state the account has been “archived”.

These includes 7.30, ABC communications, The Drum, Q+A, and all the ABC accounts in the capital cities.

Many ABC employees continue to have active accounts on the platform and post regularly, however in recent years staff have been repeatedly warned about their use of social media and the public broadcaster has updated its applicable policy multiple times.

The guidelines state that staff must not damage the ABC’s reputation for impartiality and independence, nor mix the professional and personal in a manner which could bring the ABC into disrepute.

The ABC’s social media rules came under intense scrutiny after Four Corners’ investigative journalist Louise Milligan used her own social media account in 2021 to falsely accuse former Liberal MP Andrew Laming of upskirting a woman.

She did not apologise for the comments and the taxpayer-funded organisation covered her legal expenses and a settlement sum to Dr Laming, totalling more than $200,000 after the parties agreed to settle the proceeding in August 2021.

Mr Anderson also previously said “what is separately created and posted on personal social media accounts is editorially and legally the responsibility of the owner of the accounts”.