Citing Elon Musk, city councillor wants Ottawa to suspend its X accounts

A city councillor is pushing the City of Ottawa to suspend all of its accounts on the social media platform X, which she calls "very negative," rife with misinformation and tied to the threat of punishing tariffs against Canada.

Orléans West-Innes Coun. Laura Dudas has given notice of a motion she will make to council's finance and corporate services committee next week. It asks city staff to draw up a plan to suspend the accounts and migrate to other platforms.

In her motion, she said X and owner Elon Musk no longer uphold the values of "transparency, impartiality, respect and accountability," which Dudas views as core principles for the city.

Her concerns about negative or misleading posts on the platform dovetail with her desire to see the city distance itself from Musk, especially given his close association with the Donald Trump administration threatening tariffs against Canada.

"The conversation about whether X is the right format to get factual information has been percolating for a long time," she said.

"With the tariffs looming on the horizon, this is the time to talk about it."

The city has maintained its main English X account since December 2008 and keeps numerous accounts on X, including for bylaw services, OC Transpo, paramedics, firefighters and traffic alerts.

Councillors bolting from X

Dudas said she left the platform when it was still Twitter around the time Musk began rebranding it as X in the summer of 2023. Many other city councillors still remain on X, though several have announced that they no longer plan to use it.

"This is my last post," Bay ward Coun. Theresa Kavanagh posted on X last month. "I'm done. See you on Bluesky."

"The Twitter account is now dormant," College ward Coun. Laine Johnson posted in November. "You can find me on Bluesky."

Knoxdale-Merivale Coun. Sean Devine is one of the latest, posting this month that he will only use his X account for urgent communications. He also opened a Bluesky account.

Bluesky is an alternative social media platform that was spun off from Twitter and became an independent company in 2021.

Several city accounts already exist on Bluesky, though they have not yet begun posting. Ottawa Public Health is actively using its Bluesky accounts, as is the Ottawa Police Service.

As of now, however, all are also operating X accounts in tandem.

Dudas specifically mentioned Bluesky as one option, though she said her motion would not apply to arms-length agencies like those two mentioned above.

Open to exceptions for emergencies

Dudas has previously set her sights on social media companies including Meta, which runs Facebook and Instagram.

She put together a motion to have the city pull its advertising from those platforms after Meta announced it would block Canadians from accessing news articles due to a dispute over federal efforts to make it pay for journalistic content.

That motion failed on a close vote.

If her latest motion passes at committee and council, Ottawa wouldn't be the first Canadian city to leave X. North Vancouver shuttered its account last month, while Prince George suspended it for all but emergencies.

Dudas said city staff in Ottawa have also raised concerns about whether leaving X would limit the city's ability to get out emergency information. She said she's open to a discussion about exceptions.

The motion didn't give staff a specific deadline. Dudas said she hopes the city can move quickly, but accepts there might be hurdles.

"Frankly, if we're going to do it, let's just pull the Band-Aid," she said. "But once again, I understand that not all these things operationally are as easy as '1-2-3 go.' So I'd want to hear from staff as to how they would ease themselves off of it and if we can look at those other formats."

Dudas's motion would also have the city publicize its intent to suspend its X accounts and redirect residents to other platforms.