City of York Council has been accused of ‘pearl-clutching’ over a decision to stop using X due to concerns about content on the site and the way it operates.
The decision to stop posting on X follows a rise in misinformation and divisive content on the platform while engagement with council posts has declined, according to a report.
Council leader Cllr Claire Douglas said changes to the site, including the end of independent fact-checking, meant its use was no longer in line with the authority’s communications policies.
But disability rights activist Flick Williams said the move would make it harder for people, including those with impairments, to engage with the council online.
The decision taken on Wednesday, April 23 will see the council stop posting on its X account except during emergencies.
The council is set to keep its @CityofYork account to avoid people impersonating it but others it runs will be closed.
Wednesday’s decision does not affect individual councillors’ accounts which they can continue to use.
A council report stated concerns about misinformation and the amplification of divisive content and extreme views have grown since Elon Musk bought Twitter in 2022 and rebranded it X.
The report added changes such as the replacement of independent fact-checking with a community notes system had made using the site to communicate increasingly challenging.
Council research suggested that, although it had 49,000 followers on X, more than other platforms, other sources of information such as the authority’s website were more popular with residents.
‘This is the wrong decision’
Cllr Douglas said the spread of harmful content on the site ran counter to the authority’s commitment to openness and fairness.
She added the move and which channels the council uses to communicate with residents would be kept under review going forward.
Cllr Douglas said: “We understand that this is a platform that’s used by some people, but the amount of people who receive council communications on other platforms is so much higher.
“X has changed, we feel that given the shift in how it operates and the relatively low levels of engagement with the council on it moving to a situation where it’s only used for emergency communications is a reasonable way to go.”
But disability rights activist Ms Williams told Wednesday’s meeting X was the most accessible platform for disabled people thanks to features such as screen reading.
She added a council assessment’s justification for ceasing X use on the grounds it was stop disabled people being exposed to harmful content was infantilising and paternalistic.
Ms Williams said: “This is the wrong decision, social media platforms all have pros and cons but there are elements of this that amount to nothing more than pearl-clutching.
“X hosts a massive community of disabled people who can find one another and come together to share information.
“The decision has been framed in terms of the council getting information out but it’s a two-way street, how will we be able to make the council aware of issues with photographic evidence such as obstructive parking and countless others?”
The Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) has been unable to reach X for comment.