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World News

Dioceses desert X for new horizons

by Donna Birrell

Many Church of England dioceses are deserting the social media platform X, which was formerly known as Twitter.

The exodus follows concerns over the direction of the platform and its content since Elon Musk took over as owner in 2022.

Musk has hailed the site as a bastion of freedom of expression but it has become increasingly more polarised with content of an extremist nature being shared. He's also published several posts supporting the far-right activist Tommy Robinson.

During the riots which followed the stabbing of three children in Southport, the platform was strongly criticised for posts that were said to have incited violence.

Social media is a valuable way for churches and dioceses to engage with parishioners and over the years Twitter became a go-to way of connecting Christians. But now, dioceses such as Winchester, Salisbury, and Bristol are among those no longer active on the platform.

In a statement on its website, the Diocese of Salisbury said: "This decision has arisen from growing discomfort about the current direction of the platform, and also from the negative effect that some debate has had on social cohesion and church unity. We believe that, on balance, it serves polarisation and profit rather than connection and understanding.

“We aren’t leaving because we shy away from difficult discussion, but because we believe that these should be conducted in ways that honour human dignity and build up our common life.

“The number of our followers on X will seem small to many organisations, though we value each one. We look forward to staying in touch through other channels and connecting with all those interesting in our work of Making Jesus Known."

A spokesperson for the Diocese of Truro said while it hasn't left X, it isn't posting material because "the content and tone of X is quite toxic a lot of the time and with limited resources we are focusing on those platforms that help us connect best with our key audiences and provide a more positive space for us and our users.”

Many Christians and dioceses are switching to a presence on the social app site BlueSky which was initially set up in 2019 by Jack Dorsey a former Twitter CEO. It is now mainly owned by CEO Jay Graber who says its ethos is "social media as it should be". It invites users to find their community among millions of users and to "unleash" their creativity and "have some fun again".

 

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