The municipality of Den Bosch stops reporting on online platform X, formerly Twitter. Mayor Jack Mikkers announced this during the council meeting on Tuesday evening. According to Mikkers, X no longer fits in with the social media policy of the municipality of Den Bosch. Earlier this week, Tilburg also announced to stop X.
Mikkers responded to questions from the group for Den Bosch. Chairman of the party Joep Gersjes quoted the subject after other municipalities left the platform of tech billionaire Elon Musk because personal data is insufficiently protected and there is not enough transparency about algorithms. Moreover, Gersjes states that fake news and racism get ample job on X.
According to Mikkers, Den Bosch stops for another reason with X. “We have around 20,000 followers, but they are probably ‘sleeping’.” This is in contrast to the followers on Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn.
The mayor does not go along with the objections of Gersjes. “That is a completely different discussion. Then we would come to the conclusion that we will be confronted with all the social media with whom the background and owner is. Then you will soon be on a sliding scale about when and when.” According to him, Tiktok is a different category, because it concerns information security. Civil servants have therefore been forbidden for some time to install the app on their work devices.
Principle
Arjen van Silfhout van Volt would have liked to hear that more principle line from the mayor. In a motion he called on the college to speak out against disinformation, extremist ideas and threats and to stop using X.
The account of the municipality of Den Bosch will continue to exist, to prevent the username from being used by others to spread misinformance. “We will refer people to the social media where they can still follow our reporting.”
Earlier this week, Tilburg also decided to stop X. This municipality will go off for X for principle. Mayor Theo Weterings said in the council that it is good to make a statement and that the Commission also wants to get rid of X.
Weterings: “There are concerns at the College, also with the mayor about the effects of what happens in American politics.“ This meant Weterings on the close band that is there between Elon Musk, the owner of X and the US President Donald Trump, the way X is currently running and what is written on it.
Also read: Tilburg puts Kruis by ‘X’, municipality stops with Platform of Elon Musk