An increasing number of organisations are ceasing to use the social media platform X due to concerns over “hate speech” and disinformation. Among those opting out are the municipality of Tilburg and the Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e). However, the municipality of Eindhoven has decided to maintain its presence on X, “to prevent others from taking over.”
The municipality shared this in response to questions from Studio040. Earlier this week, Tilburg’s city council announced it would stop using the platform, formerly known as Twitter, after many years. Local politicians in Tilburg have labelled the American platform, owned by billionaire Elon Musk, as a “toxic platform” that flouts European regulations and promotes disinformation. TU/e also decided to discontinue its use of X last month.
For the time being, the municipality of Eindhoven has opted not to follow suit. For the past eighteen months, it has been posting limited updates on X, typically related to closures, incidents, and events. The municipality also occasionally responds to concerns raised by residents or organisations.
Prevent
An important reason for the municipality to keep the X account on the air is “to prevent others from taking over,” a spokesperson writes. “We keep the name of the account so that it is not possible to take it over. With this we prevent someone pretending to be the municipality of Eindhoven and take over our username,” he further explains.
Whether the municipality will eventually say goodbye to X is not yet clear. Also about the use of a possible alternative platform, no decision has been made yet. The municipality says it is following the developments surrounding X closely.
Source: Studio040
For Eindhoven News: Chaitali Sengupta.
