‘Toxic’ X/Twitter banned by town council in Cornwall
The ban is for the councillors and staff
A town council in Cornwall has formally banned the use of X/Twitter by its councillors and staff.
Marazion Town Council thinks it is the first of 213 councils in Cornwall to ban the use of Elon Musk’s social media platform as a tool to publicise what it is doing or to chat with residents.
As part of a full council meeting this week, a motion was passed on a majority decision by councillors to prohibit X (formerly Twitter) from being used. It was felt that using the platform for anything that the council wanted to promote went against both the local authority’s and the town’s “beliefs around tolerance, respect and inclusiveness”.
Part of the reasoning was cited as the platform’s Grok AI feature which has been under fire worldwide for being used to ‘undress’ women and create and share ‘nude’ photos of famous women.
The motion was tabled by Cllr Richard Stokoe. He said he made the move “because X/Twitter continues to use sexploitation, and especially child sexual exploitation, through the manipulation of images to undress people to make money.
“Yes, there is always the right of free speech but free speech can be done in places which aren’t making money through knowingly allowing its Grok AI platform and users to undress women without their consent and, even worse, children.”
He added: “This goes on top of the toxic cocktail of racism, sexism and unchecked lies being the main staple of that social media platform. Marazion and Marazion Town Council had no wish to be associated with such an awful online forum.”
Several local councils in the UK have decided to stop using or ban X/Twitter from their official communications, citing concerns over unfiltered and inappropriate content, misinformation and the rise of “toxic” abuse on the platform.
They include Devon County Council, Warwick District Council, Belfast City Council, Southampton City Council and a number of others.
Cllr Stokoe told us: “From what I can gather we are the first out of the 213 councils in Cornwall to make a formal move to ban the local authority from corporately using it. X/Twitter just doesn’t feel like a place where responsible organisations should be touting their wares or aligning their values with.”