Paris
Anne Hidalgo, whose opponents have used the platform to criticize her, cited disinformation and anti-Semitism as reasons for her departure
Portal in Paris
Monday, November 27, 2023, 1:09 p.m. GMT
Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo has announced she is quitting X, formerly Twitter, calling it a “gigantic global sewer” that is “destroying our democracies” by spreading abuse and misinformation.
After buying Twitter in 2022, billionaire Elon Musk fired thousands of employees, including many who moderated content on the platform. The company, renamed X, has lost several major advertisers and has been criticized, including by the White House, for not doing enough to curb anti-Semitism.
“I have made the decision to leave Twitter,” Hidalgo wrote in detail Posts in English And French on Monday, citing manipulation, disinformation, anti-Semitism and attacks on scientists, climatologists, women and liberals.
“Far from being the groundbreaking medium that first made information accessible to the greatest number of people, Twitter has, in recent years, become a formidable tool for the destruction of our democracies,” she added.
“This platform… intentionally exacerbates tensions and conflicts.”
Hidalgo’s campaign to turn Paris into a cycling capital has earned her both scorn and praise on social media over the years, with some users using the hashtag #SaccageParis (WreckParis) to criticize the seemingly endless work and visually unsightly construction sites.
“This medium has become a gigantic global sewer and we should continue to wade in it?” said the socialist politician, whose failed bid for the French presidency in 2022 received 1.7% of the vote.
“I refuse to support this evil plan,” she said.
More recently, Hidalgo came under fire for traveling to the French island of Tahiti, ostensibly to check out a surfing site for the 2024 Olympics, which opponents say was not within her purview, and for taking her daughter, who lives there visited.
X users and opposition politicians used the hashtag #TahitiGate to lambast her over the trip, which was partly funded by taxpayers.
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