The City of Calgary said it’s joining a growing list of Canadian municipalities “evaluating the usefulness” of the X social media platform, as one Alberta city has decided to cut ties.

Earlier this year, the City of Leduc, just outside of Edmonton, made the decision to leave the X (formerly Twitter) social media platform. Their decision was executed Feb. 28, and they no longer have a presence on the site.

Other cities like Cambridge, Ontario and North Vancouver, BC have also shut down their X accounts.

These decisions come as X owner Elon Musk has fixed himself among US President Donald Trump’s most trusted advisers, in an administration that is systematically dismantling many US institutions. Further, ongoing commentary on the toxicity of the X platform after Musk took over Twitter in 2022 has continued to plague the site.

A recent story by Forbes, however, shows there’s still confidence in the platform and that the company has stabilized since Musk took over.

Ultimately, despite ongoing concerns about toxicity, and misinformation and disinformation proliferating on the site, a Leduc city councillor said leaving came down to a business decision.

Coun. Ryan Pollard said he approached the Leduc city manager about whether their X account should be kept open.

“I’ve got my own personal concerns of a political, ethical, moral nature, but you know what? What are we getting out of it,” he asked city administration.

At that time, the Leduc Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) said they were doing an overall review of social media. They found that engagement on Facebook was in the neighbourhood of 99 to 1 in favour of the Meta platform.

That work was already underway before the current situation in the US with the deconstruction of institutions and the applications of tariffs, Pollard said. They actually made the decision earlier this year, with it only happening recently.

 “As of today, we’ve got tariffs on us by that administration, so potentially a disloyal person who’s tolerating or encouraging racist, bad faith actors, white supremacists on his website… Should we be supporting that from an ethical, moral, legal consideration?” Pollard said.

“Do we take a reputational hit for being on this app? But before we even get to that question, is it something that delivers any value? The answer is no. It delivers no value. So, this was a business decision to shut it down.”

The Calgary X footprint

The City of Calgary said that its primary X account has more than 300,000 followers (315.5K on March 6). That’s nearly 10 times the size of Leduc’s entire municipal population.

They said, in an emailed response, that they have a responsibility to remain accessible to Calgarians. They have taken some action, however.

“In response to concerns about the evolving user environment on X, The City’s primary account has turned off comments and will no longer advertise on the platform,” they wrote.

“The City of Calgary is joining a growing list of Canadian municipalities who are evaluating the usefulness of X and its ability to support the needs of their community.”

Basic engagement data from 2024 was provided, and it showed the X platform performs the worst in terms of engagement. It also has the most followers, more than double that of Facebook.

“The number of engagements we get per platform is highly dependent on the content within the post and type of post – text, video, image etc,” the City of Calgary wrote.

Going back to mid-February, the City of Calgary’s average reach on posts is around 3,600 people, or roughly 1 per cent of followers.

“The City will continue to maintain the account for organic posts and communications during emergency activations to help keep Calgarians informed,” they wrote in their response.

“The City will continue to monitor our primary and secondary accounts on X along with other social media channels to determine viability and effectiveness.”

In a 2024 update on strategic marketing and communications, the City said it had developed a “multi-pronged approach to addressing the growth of misinformation and disinformation about the City.”

They said that more than 170 staff participated in training on how to make City content more effective in reaching desired audiences and less vulnerable to misinformation and disinformation tactics.

Last year, the City of Calgary, along with other municipalities and the provincial government, banned TikTok on City of Calgary issued electronic devices.

Meanwhile, the City of Calgary has opened an account on new social media rival Bluesky, where they have around 4,500 followers.

Consider the statement being made remaining on X: UCalgary prof

University of Calgary political science professor Lisa Young said that she can see the dilemma it poses for cities in remaining on the X platform. It’s not something to give up without some careful thought, she said.

“For a long time, Twitter, and then X, really was the public square. In many ways, it’s where journalists got their information, and to some extent, continue to get their information,” she said.

“It was an agreed upon place, and it was certainly a place where the City could engage with a segment of the public in a meaningful sort of way.”

The situation on the platform, however, has changed, Young said.

“I do think that any institution would need to reconsider its place on X, given the role of its owner in an American administration that makes daily comments about invading Canadian sovereignty,” she said.

“I think that there are security considerations that political actors need to take into account when they’re actually on X, because it is being used as a political tool by its owner.”

Furthermore, Young said that social media managers would have to ask regularly if the engagement that they do get is authentic. Elon Musk himself acknowledged in 2022 that as many as 20 per cent of X accounts are bots. Other studies have shown that while the number of bots may be lower, they represent a disproportionate amount of the online engagement.

“I don’t think it can be a trusted platform anymore,” Young said.

To that end, it’s important that there’s ongoing monitoring of the X platform, Young said. If there’s evidence that being on X is the only way to deliver information to certain segments of the population, or in an emergency situation, perhaps it’s justifiable to maintain an account.  

Given the concern over proliferation of mis- and disinformation, and being mixed among that, there’s potential for reputational risk, too, Young said.  

“I do think that institutions do need now to consider what statement they are making by remaining on X, and what kind of risks are associated with that,” she said.  

“It’s a decision that has to be made, carefully weighing costs and benefits, and I think some of the costs include reputational risks.”

Some say stay, others say go

Ward 9 Coun. Gian-Carlo Carra said he would support the City of Calgary leaving the X platform. He said he walked away from the platform nearly two years ago. Carra said he did so because one of the people he followed, California lawyer Teri Kanefield made a good argument that if you’re on X, you’re just helping the propaganda machine.

“People who stay on Twitter to fight the good fight are just providing that plurality of voices in support of what should be pretty obvious to be a propaganda machine that has very little concern for or care for the values that I believe we hold dear as a democratic society, as a Canadian society,” he said.

Carra said he believes they curate how you view and interact with the information to try and change your mind over time.

“I was happy to walk away, and my life has been only better since then,” he said.

“I don’t think anyone should be on Twitter. Full stop. It’s a nightmare.”

Ward 13 Coun. Dan McLean uses social media as a tool to get his carefully curated message out to followers. He said he has no idea why the City of Calgary would consider leaving X.

“Whether you like them or not, it’s the largest platform on Earth. You want to disseminate your message. You can put it out there, if you don’t want to hear the comments. I guess you could turn them off,” he said.  

“But isn’t that what the city is supposed to do with engagement, is actually get feedback, even if it’s negative?”

McLean said he’s a free speech absolutist – minus hate speech or vulgarity against certain people. Other social media has checks and balances in place to challenge statements on a platform that are wrong.

“Most of it is just people’s opinions and you’ve got to listen to them.”