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Amid a surge in hate speech on X, some are questioning whether it’s time to shut down the accounts after misinformation fuelled far-right violence.
Labour minister Jess Phillips called the platform a “disastrous place” and Liverpool Mayor Steve Rotheram said it was time for politicians to consider leaving it.
X owner Elon Musk used his platform to attack Prime Minister Keir Starmer after writing that a “civil war is inevitable” in the UK due to “cultural discord”.
Musk, who bought Twitter in 2020, has made a series of jokes about British police, particularly the country’s efforts to incite violence on social media. In response to reports that someone had been charged for posting on Facebook, he posted, “Is this the UK or the USSR?”
Users who have left X in recent weeks range from singer Paloma Faith to the NHS’s Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital.
Elon Musk, owner of the former Twitter X (Leon Neal/PA) (PA Archive)
Since Musk took over as head of the app in 2022 (it changed its name from Twitter shortly thereafter), the app’s number of active users has been declining. In 2023, the number of users worldwide is expected to fall from 368 million to 359 million, and to fall again this year. Musk, an American billionaire, has made several changes to the app, including adding a paid premium option and increasing advertising.
Searches for “delete Twitter” and “delete X” peaked in the UK last week and remain around 200 percent higher than the average over the past year, according to Google data.
Liverpool Mayor Steve Rotheram’s constituency includes Southport, where last month three children were killed in an attack that was widely and incorrectly reported on social media as being perpetrated by an asylum seeker, sparking hate speech and inciting far-right riots.
He told Politics Home: “It’s just vile. [X] This is a really bad situation and something needs to be done.
“The time is approaching when we will all have to step back and consider whether we should launch another platform.”
Speaking about X at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival over the weekend, Phillips said: “I basically think that’s it for me now. I don’t want to fish in that pond anymore.”
She added: “I was super addicted to Twitter. I’m a very addictive person. I was super addicted.”
“The only power we have against what is becoming a bit of an authoritarian situation right now is to give it up – in this case, to vote with our feet, not with pen and paper.”
Since acquiring the site, Musk has promoted X as a platform for free speech.
How to delete your Twitter/X account
Before you can delete your Twitter/X account, you’ll first need to deactivate it. This can be easily done on both the mobile app and desktop, although they are slightly different.
First, go to “Settings and Privacy.” On desktop, this is under the “More” button. Then, find the “Account” section. It’s the top option, so it should appear automatically. At the bottom of this screen, you’ll see the option to “Disable Account.”
A screen will appear explaining the terms of deactivation. If you wish to proceed, click the red “Deactivate” button.
However, your account will not be permanently deleted at this point – it will remain inactive for 30 days, after which it will disappear for good. If you are a premium user, you can choose to keep your account inactive for up to 12 months.
If users want to create a new account with the same username or email address, they will have to wait until the deactivation period ends. To avoid this, users can change their username or email address before deactivating so they don’t have to wait.
If you wish to download your X-Data, you must do so before deactivating your account. Once your account is deleted, you will no longer have access to your X-Data.