CBS News temporarily abandons Twitter over ‘security concerns’

CBS News announced on Friday evening that it will suspend its use of Twitter as a platform for disbursing news and headlines amid the chaotic takeover of Elon Musk and the fallout that has followed.

“In light of the uncertainty around Twitter and out of an abundance of caution, CBS News is pausing its activity on the social media site as it continues to monitor the platform,” announced CBS News correspondent Jonathan Vigliotti during Friday’s airing of CBS Evening News.

By Saturday morning, most CBS News accounts on Twitter had gone silent, including CBS local affiliates.

The last message on the official CBS News account – a retweet of a headline about Merrick Garland appointing a special counsel for Trump investigations – was posted just before the on-air announcement of the move to abandon Twitter, coming at 3:38PM.

Then, on Sunday, CBS said in a now-deleted tweet: “After pausing for much of the weekend to assess the security concerns, CBS News and Stations is resuming its activity on Twitter as we continue to monitor the situation.”

Celebrities including Whoopi Goldberg, Sarah Bareilles, Gigi Hadid, and others have recently also announced their departure from the platform, joining some major brands.

General Motors, Dyson, Balenciaga, Audi, Eli Lilly and Playbill have all stopped advertising on Twitter since the Musk takeover, which has left employees of Twitter without jobs and users without clear guidelines about how the site will operate moving forward.