The city of Cambridge, Ont. announced Monday that it would no longer be posting to the social media platform, X, formerly known as Twitter, citing concerns about the platform’s “reliability, accountability and direction.”
According to the city, the decision was made because of “ongoing concerns about the platform’s viability as a trusted space for public communication as content found and promoted on X, includes racism and misinformation. The City feels X no longer aligns with the values of inclusivity, respect, integrity, service and responsible communication.”
Cambridge said it would post one final message to residents about the update and share other ways to remain in touch with the city. However, by Tuesday morning, the account had been disabled.
Global News has reached out to the city to find out whether it had deactivated the account or whether the social media platform had made that move but did not receive a response as of Tuesday afternoon.
There has been a movement of people, including celebrities, to the social media platform BlueSky over the past few months, and Cambridge said it was considering using the platform, which now boasts 31 million users. While that number continues to grow, X claims to have over 500 million users worldwide.
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Cambridge is not the first Canadian municipality to abandon X. In January, the District of North Vancouver also decided to leave the social media platform.
In its announcement, it cited that the social media site no longer aligned with the municipality’s corporate values.
The move by Cambridge also follows on the heels of a request by Halifax Coun. Laura White for city staff to consider a similar move away from X.
“In the past two-plus years since Elon Musk acquired Twitter (now X) the platform has become less congenial, informative and useful, and more toxic,” the motion reads.
“With Musk now a ‘special government employee’ of the Trump administration, it is very clear that platform goes against our municipal values of evidence-based decision making and diversity, equity, inclusion & accessibility, to name a few. X is no longer a medium that many reputable organizations are comfortable associating with.”
When contacted by Global News, the cities of Kitchener and Waterloo and the Region of Waterloo said leaving X was not a move they were considering at the moment.
“We regularly review social media channels and how residents interact with us to ensure messages reach residents in spaces they occupy online,” the region said in an email. “At the moment, there are no plans to move away from X. Staff will continue to monitor the effectiveness of the channel and adapt as necessary.”
In its statement, the City of Kitchener noted that it does not spend any of its advertising budget on X.
“We understand concerns about changes in platform management and content moderation,” Kitchener offered. “Still, many local residents, media, and businesses use the City of Kitchener’s X account to engage, get news, and have their questions answered. We do not spend advertising dollars on X.”
— With files from Global News’ Rebecca Lau
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