Time for decent people to say goodbye to X

The role that social media has played in promoting the far-right violence of the last week is now firmly in the spotlight. The number one culprit is X with its owner, Elon Musk, now adding his hate-filled bigotry to an already volatile mix.

I have not been convinced for some time that X adds much, if any, value to those seeking constructive engagement or wanting to promote good news about themselves, their business or their interests. Since Elon Musk took over Twitter and rebranded it, the quality and engagement on the platform has declined drastically. It has been clear that many of the organisations and people we once believed we could engage with through the platform have either left or stopped using it.

A year ago, I was already in despair at how Musk was wrecking a once vibrant, engaging platform – X marks the spot where Musk buried Twitter.

Having put considerable effort into my own and other organisations’ presence on the platform I have been reluctant to acknowledge the full extent of its decline. However, the last few months, and particularly the events of the last week, have now convinced me that the time has come to leave the platform.

During the General Election campaign it was swamped with lies, distortions and outright bigotry in the name of Reform. Much of that is what now gives cover to the violence of their far-right allies. It is straight out of the playbook that Trump uses in the US. His rhetoric and lies about the last Presidential election emboldened groups such as the Proud Boys to launch their assault on Capitol Hill. The same is now happening here and X is at the heart of it.

Musk himself has voiced the view that this is the start of civil war in our country, another narrative gathering force in the US. It will only get worse as the US elections approach and probably fuel further assaults on our institutions in the UK. It is no coincidence that the police have been as much a focus of the violence  as immigrants and Muslims: they are seen as representing the state. There are too many uncomfortable parallels with the rise of the Nazis in Germany in the late 1920s and 1930s.

So, it is not merely that X no longer offers any value. It is being used to destabilise society and our institutions. I believe to remain on it is reputationally damaging to any decent individual or organisation.

It is time to go.

• For one last time, I will put a link to this post on X before deleting the account later today.