‘X.com no longer aligns with our corporate values,’ says the District of North Vancouver.
The District of North Vancouver has deactivated its X account, while other Metro Vancouver cities are mulling doing the same, following concerns about misinformation and far-right extremism on the platform and owner Elon Musk’s Nazi-like hand salute at U.S. President Donald Trump’s inauguration.
“We have begun the process of deactivating the district’s corporate x.com account,” says a statement this week from the District of North Vancouver.
“This is something we have been considering for some time now based on changes to the platform X.com no longer aligns with our corporate values.”
The district says it will still have a social-media presence on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube and LinkedIn.
The City of Vancouver is also looking into whether to deactivate its X account.
“With an audience of over 269,000 on X, we are currently exploring the operational impacts of deactivating the City of Vancouver’s X account and how this may affect communicating with users across the city,” an emailed statement said Wednesday. “At this time, we are looking into alternative platforms and other jurisdictional responses to inform the best path forwards for our organization and communication needs.”
A spokesperson for the city confirmed that the X alternative site Bluesky was being considered.
Asked whether New Westminster would also leave X, the city’s communications team said it’s reassessing its social-media use.
“While we anticipate there may be a need for change in the near future, at this time we have not finalized any decisions,” city staff said in an email.
The B.C. government stopped advertising on X more than two years ago when ownership changed. The government “vigilantly upholds a no tolerance policy towards hate and harassment,” an email from the Ministry of Finance said.
“We are continuously reviewing the appropriateness of all platforms as we consider the most effective ways to reach British Columbians with trusted, critical information about emergencies, public health, programs and services.”
The “X-odus,” as it has been dubbed by media outlets, has been happening since late last year, following concerns about misinformation and far-right extremism on the platform.
Richmond said while it hasn’t made a decision yet about X, it has created a Bluesky account and is looking into how to build a profile for future use.
Bluesky was a project started by Jack Dorsey when he was CEO of what was then-Twitter in 2019. It became an independent company in 2021 and, in late 2022, Twitter and Bluesky agreed to part ways. Its founding mission continues to be to “develop and drive large-scale adoption of technologies for open and decentralized public conversation.”
Software engineer Jay Graber has been the CEO of Bluesky since its inception.
With files from Postmedia News