THERE are no immediate plans at Stratford District Council to follow neighbouring local authorities and ditch social media platform X – formerly known as Twitter.
Warwick District Council recently agreed to “suspend all use of X immediately” over increasing safety concerns since the world’s richest man Elon Musk bought the platform three years ago.
WDC cite the abolishing of the platform’s Child Safety team, meaning content cannot be checked for child abuse, grooming and self-harm, together with Musk himself using the platform to promote his own views and support extreme right-wing groups in both the UK and US.
WDC’s X account currently has over 12,000 followers and has been the authority’s main social media outlet for providing time sensitive, urgent messages, such as advising of town centre parking issues or guidance and updates during an emergency.
Concerns have been raised that by no longer using the platform, WDC would lose an important news and information outlet.
And there is also concern the suspension could mean a lack of awareness about what was said about WDC on the platform, which the authority could then not respond to or refute.
WDC is investigating the use of other communication possibilities, including community-based WhatsApp groups and increased use of the Cloud9 App – currently used for waste collections – to deliver time sensitive and emergency communications.
Other neighbouring councils in Rugby and Solihull have recently left X.
But a spokesperson for SDC said that while they were aware other organisations have stopped using X they did not have any immediate plans to follow suit.
However, the spokesperson did add they were monitoring public opinion on the issue and had started building up a follower base on alternative platforms such as Bluesky and Threads.
SDC’s X account currently has over 9,500 followers.
