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The City of Fredericton announced it would be leaving Elon Musk’s X (formerly Twitter) at the end of the month.
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In August, the city said it was considering an exit from X due to a decline in engagement, and put out a survey asking Frederictonians if they would support the decision.
“The survey confirmed that residents look for information about city services and programs on other platforms, those results combined with the decrease in engagement led to the decision to step away from X,” City spokesperson Marley McLellan said in an email Wednesday.
She didn’t say if recent controversies surrounding X played a part in the decision.
The European Commission recently launched an investigation into the platform under the European Union’s Digital Services Act over risks associated with its A.I. chatbot, Grok.
“This includes risks related to the dissemination of illegal content in the EU, such as manipulated sexually explicit images, including content that may amount to child sexual abuse material,” said an EU press release dated Jan. 25.
The Austronesian nations of Indonesia and Malaysia became the first to ban Grok entirely earlier this month over its ability to produce sexually explicit deepfakes, the BBC reported.
The City of Fredericton will continue to use its website and newsletters, as well as Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn, to communicate with residents, McLellan said.
There is also a @cityoffredericton account on Bluesky with no posts so far. McLellan said that “at this time, the city is exploring the opportunities Bluesky could provide.”
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