4 Reasons Why We’ve Stopped Using X

We’ve decided to stop posting on X. We’ll still have an account on the platform in the hopes that it will one day change hands, but in the meantime, we’re going to focus on sharing our work elsewhere.

Here are the main reasons why:

  1. Strong anti-immigration views are rampant on X. Not only do these views strongly oppose our mission, they also go against a core value of ours: compassion. We no longer believe that X is a welcoming place for charities like ours, and it is certainly not a safe place to share stories from Upbeat participants. However anonymous, these stories have a greater potential to attract negative or racist comments, leaving the charity and those we work with vulnerable to abuse (online or in-person).

  2. Upbeat supporters are becoming less and less likely to spend their time on X. Having asked our followers on other platforms, it is clear that people are moving away from the platform. It is therefore not in our fundraising or awareness-raising interests to continue pouring resources into X.

  3. Community and connection are not the purpose of X. Since it began as Twitter, X has served as a short-form information and opinion-sharing platform, and we have never had a large following on there. We like to share longer stories, videos, graphics and pictures that connect with our audience and create a sense of community, as well as bringing our work to life. This is much more effective on platforms like Facebook, where we can have better conversations with our audience, and Instagram, where pictures and videos can be more easily shared.

  4. X could literally fund anti-immigration policies in the UK. As X is owned by Elon Musk, we’re concerned about its financial affiliations with political parties that endorse stricter, less compassionate asylum policies. We don’t want to use a platform that’s involved with anything anti-immigration.

Are you an X user? Or have you moved to another platform for similar reasons? We’d love to hear what you think—drop us a DM on any of our other socials:

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