Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo said on Monday that she was leaving X, declaring that the platform was a “gigantic global sewer” that was “destroying our democracies” through the dissemination of hate speech and false information.
Elon Musk fired thousands of workers after purchasing Twitter in 2022, many of them were in charge of content moderation on the social media network. After changing its name to X, the company lost a number of significant sponsors and came under fire from the White House and others for not doing more to stop antisemitism.
In an extensive post in both English and French, Hidalgo said that “this platform and its owner intentionally exacerbates tensions and conflicts,” citing antisemitism, manipulation, disinformation, and attacks against climatologists, scientists, women, and liberals.
The socialist lawmaker, whose unsuccessful candidature for the French presidency in 2022 received 1.7% of the vote, questioned, “This medium has become a gigantic global sewer, and we should continue to wade into it?”
“I refuse to endorse this evil scheme,” she stated.
More recently, she has faced criticism for travelling to the French island of Tahiti, allegedly to see a surfing location for the 2024 Olympics, although opponents claimed the trip did not come under her purview and that she instead visited her daughter who lives there.
