A Town staff report regarding social media prompted a back-and-forth between councillors this week that resembled a live X exchange.
The report presented at Monday's Halton Hills Council meeting suggested that the Town begin transitioning from X (formerly Twitter) to Bluesky as its main social media platform while keeping both accounts active. The Town currently has more than 7,700 followers on X. It launched its Bluesky account yesterday.
In expressing his support for the move, Councillor Clark Somerville said he deleted his X account last month.
“I got tired of the toxic environment on X and just got rid of my whole account,” the Ward 1 and 2 Regional Councillor said. “I couldn’t take the pit of negativity that it had become and I didn’t like that they weren’t doing the verification, relying on community editors as opposed to having people actually fact checking.”
Ward 4 Councillor D’Arcy Keene said, “I certainly have no problem with the adoption of a new, untested beta platform such as Bluesky for those who don’t have the stomach for the rough and tumble of hardcore free speech debate that exists today on X.”
But he also said he had "grave concerns" about the staff report on the topic, claiming it was biased.
“This appears to me to be nothing more than a veiled attempt to shut out a certain philosophical approach to free speech that doesn’t contrive with the official narrative,” he said. “If you look at the evidence you put in your report, you’re quoting things that are a clear shill for the Liberal Party.”
Town Director of Communications Alex Fuller defended the report.
“When putting this report together there was absolutely no partisan intent,” she said. “We bring this forward not to say we should immediately jump from one platform to another, but rather share with council that there are other channels. We are taking our time, we are watching and are going to adjust our strategies as we see fit.”
Keene, who later called it "a denigration of free speech in this community," questioned staff’s motivation for bringing the report forward.
“Very clearly we’re migrating away from X to Bluesky,” he said. “As far as procedure goes, I don’t understand how staff is allowed to go ahead with this without any resolution from town council. It’s just a report but it seems it’s a fait accompli. You’re just going to automatically do that without any involvement from council. And where’s the genesis for this report? Which individual – elected individual – brought this to council’s attention because this came out of the blue.”
“You’re going down a rabbit hole that is neither proper nor fair to our staff,” Somerville shot back.
“As we heard the Director of Communications say, they monitor it. They clearly indicated they are not abandoning X,” he said. “Our staff need to look at things as they emerge. It wasn’t that many years ago where (council) had zero involvement on any social media, but our team, led by Mrs. Fuller, actually helped push that out and it was tremendous during things like the ice storm.”
Bluesky was started by Twitter founder Jack Dorsey, originally as a part of Twitter in 2019. It became an independent company in 2021. It opened registration to the public in February 2024 and now has 30 million users, adding 10 million between November 2024 and January 2025.
Twitter was co-founded by Dorsey in 2006. Elon Musk purchased the platform in 2022 and rebranded it as X. X has approximately 650 million users worldwide.
Fuller said staff monitors industry best practices and reviews the social media platforms it uses.
“Are we using a platform that is reflective of our values as a corporation?” she said. “Honesty and respect are among the Town’s six values that are noted in every job posting. Should we be using a platform that condones behaviour contrary to what we have said is important to us?"
Communications Specialist Laura Stervoski showed the results of a study conducted by the Public Library of Science (PLOS) One that analyzed X (Twitter) posts from January 2002 to June 2023. It showed a 50 per cent increase in hate speech, 260 per cent increase in transphobic slurs, a 30 per cent increase in homophobic posts and a 42 per cent increase in racist posts.
The report also noted the Canadian Anti-Hate Network (CAHN) believes under Musk’s ownership there has been an increase in hate, disinformation and conspiracy theories on X. It is circulating a petition to all municipalities and has encouraged elected officials to stop using the platform.
The City of Cambridge has switched to Bluesky and is no longer using X. Hamilton is using Bluesky and X while Guelph, Oakville and Halton Region have reserved Bluesky handles.
Councillor Mike Albano said he also recently deleted his X account. Mayor Ann Lawlor and Councillor Alex Hilson also expressed their support for the report, while Councillor Matt Kindbom's expressed concern about how a potential future change in ownership may affect Bluesky.
The staff report was received for information by council.
