The Race Equality Foundation, a Black-led national charity dedicated to combating racial inequality in public services, has made the decision to leave ‘X’. This decision comes in response to the platform’s role in amplifying disinformation, particularly in relation to the recent unrest in Southport and the North of England. Despite numerous complaints about racist, Islamophobic, and other discriminatory content, the platform has failed to take adequate action. Furthermore, recent changes to the way ‘likes’ are amplified have only served to exacerbate the spread of hate speech.
Since joining X in June 2010, the Foundation has been committed to engaging in free and open dialogue amongst their 10.4k followers. However, the recent shift in the platform’s management has led to a significant increase in the visibility of racist content. While acknowledging that other social media platforms are not without fault, the Race Equality Foundation has determined that X has become a particularly toxic environment for minority communities.
Jabeer Butt OBE, CEO of the Race Equality Foundation, commented:
“It is increasingly difficult for us to remain on a platform that not only tolerates but also amplifies extreme and harmful views. In the past, we could report racism on Twitter and expect some action to be taken. However, the surge in unaddressed complaints over the last few months suggests that the platform now views racist abuse as an acceptable, even valuable, form of engagement. This is something we cannot and will not endorse.”
Moving forward, we will be looking into other platforms such as Threads to ensure that our key audience of ethnic minority Britons, sector leaders and policymakers can receive our updates.
The Foundation does not take this decision lightly. We understand that X is a critical tool to engage with the public. As a result, we call on others to follow our decision of leaving the platform.
