Glasgow School of Art (GSA) has announced that it "will no longer be posting" on X, formerly known as Twitter.

The world-renowned institution took to social media to advise its followers of the decision, before providing a link to its other official accounts on BlueSky, Instagram and TikTok.

GSA declined to comment on the reasons behind the decision to deactivate its account on X.

It comes after misinformation on X was blamed for helping to fuel racist far-right riots that gripped several cities across the UK.

The owner of X, Elon Musk, was also heavily criticised for posts about the disorder, which took place in the wake of the Southport stabbings.

The South African billionaire was called “deeply irresponsible” by Justice Secretary Heidi Alexander for posting that “civil war is inevitable” in the UK.

Mr Musk deleted a repost on the website where he promoted a false claim about detainment camps being set up in the Falkland Islands for those involved in the riots.

READ MORE: Elon Musk and Humza Yousaf at war, and how we should respond

Among those to criticise Mr Musk was former first minister Humza Yousaf, who described the 53-year-old businessman and investor as “one of the most dangerous men on the planet”.

Speaking before a crowd at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe last week, Mr Yousaf said Mr Musk used his wealth “for some of the most wicked evil I’ve seen”.

In response, Mr Musk posted on his social media platform last week calling Mr Yousaf “super, super racist”.

Meanwhile, in response to Mr Yousaf posting a link to a report that he is considering suing Musk and calling a him “dangerous race baiter”, the billionaire tech owner posted on X “I dare that scumbag to sue me. Go ahead, make my day?”.

X owner Elon MuskX owner Elon Musk (Image: Herald Scotland)

Questioned on the row and Mr Musk’s comments, Scotland’s First Minister John Swinney said: “I think the language that Elon Musk has used is not only reprehensible, it’s baseless, and I think it tells us all we need to know about the degree to which the social media platform that Elon Musk owns is essentially being used as a platform for the fermenting of hate within our society.

“And Ofcom reminded the social media companies of their obligation to take down material that incites hatred or racism or violence, and that’s not been followed by X and the comments by Elon Musk I think perhaps evidence why that’s the case.”

Speaking to reporters at an event in Clydebank on Monday, Mr Swinney said: “Elon Musk has got to be held accountable for the conduct of his social media platform.”

The First Minister said that he had not yet had responses after contacting social media giants last week to call for “immediate action” to crack down on disinformation and racism following concerns it has exacerbated tensions in other parts of the country.

READ MORE: Mark McGeoghegan: Enough is enough. We must bring social media giants to heel

In a letter to X, TikTok and Meta – which owns Facebook and Instagram – Mr Swinney said police chiefs in Scotland have raised concern at the length of time it takes for technology companies to remove “problematic” posts.

Last week, social media expert Matt Navarra suggested that the UK Government should consider taking action to impact the reach of X in order to force a response from Musk.

“The UK could really do with showing that its Online Safety Act has teeth and take some steps to curtail his platform’s reach drive him to make changes to the platform or to his own actions,” he said.

“It’s also worth noting that the UK is an important market for X, it’s one of the most popular social platforms in Europe and in the UK, and the impact of any actions that could be taken against the platform could be significant in terms of his wider, bigger future plans for X as a payment platform, or for anything else he wants to achieve with the platform that is already laden with debt.

“So I don’t think he wants to be stirring up too much trouble, but probably is seeing how much he can get away with.”