The city has decided to stop using the social media platform
Social media platform X is about to lose a subscriber... the City of St. Catharines.
Councillor Robin McPherson's motion passed this week, pointing to criticism of the site for enabling the sexualization of women and girls, and failing to moderate harmful content.
She adds Cambridge and Halifax have done this, but also Paris, France. "I'm going to guess that if Paris, a global capital, serving millions of residents and visitors, can effectively communicate without X, I'm sure our incredible communications team can figure out how to do the same."
City staff will gradually make the move by the end of March.
Councillor Bruce Williamson stressed this is for the city, they're not banning private use. "Countries that have banned it for teenagers, Spain is talking about completely banning it entirely, which is far different than what we're isolating. I think this sends a very positive signal that we're not going to go along with the kind of nasty stuff that happens on X now."
The fire chief suggested keeping it, but staff say they'll look for other platforms for emergency use.
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