Saint John the latest municipality to abandon X

You will not see any more posts from the City of Saint John on the social media platform X.

The city has become the latest municipality to stop using the platform, formerly known as Twitter.

Officials made the announcement in a post on Friday, citing “low engagement and reach rates.”

Our newsroom received a similar response when we requested an interview with someone from the city.

“The decision to no longer use Twitter (X) as an official communications platform for the City is due to declining reach and engagement numbers,” a spokesperson said in an email.

However, a number of people who replied to Friday’s social media post accused the city of virtue signalling.

The social media platform has faced growing controversy since its purchase by Elon Musk, with several municipalities and organizations stepping back from it.

Just last week, the Supreme Court of Canada announced that it would be focusing its communication efforts on other platforms.

In February, Riverview council passed a motion to recommend the town stop using X. It is expected to be formally approved at council’s next regular meeting.

“I do not believe we should be supporting a platform that is full of misinformation, hate speech and anti-semitic content,” said Coun. Heath Johnson, who brought forward the motion.

Meanwhile, councillors in the Halifax Regional Municipality have asked staff to look into abandoning the social media platform.

Back in our region, the Saint John Airport announced on Tuesday that it, too, was “deplaning” from the platform effective immediately.

Meanwhile, the city said it will direct resources towards “more effective communication platforms that better serve residents,” including Facebook, Instagram, Shape Your City and saintjohn.ca.