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What is the red line on the racist, misogynist, disinformation platform?

The fact that governments and respectable news organizations continue to use the social media app formerly known as Twitter has rankled for a while. When news of the AI bot's new feature of sexualizing images nonconsensually came to my attention, I couldn't just rant to friends anymore. 

It was time for a letter:

Dear Mayor and city councillors

This message is addressed to the members who have a listing for Twitter on either their CoW page or their websites. 

Please stop.

For more than a year, many major organizations have been officially deciding that the reach offered by the social media platform formerly known as Twitter is not worth supporting an almost-trillionaire who is completely comfortable with white supremacist rhetoric, spreading disinformation, displacing human labour with low-quality AI products, and, in only his most recent egregious act, allowing the platform to do non-consensual sexual violence through image manipulation. 

https://www.wired.com/story/x-grok-app-store-nudify-csam-apple-google-content-moderation/

Other cities and organizations are way ahead of you: please get yourselves and the City of Winnipeg off Twitter. 

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/north-vancouver-x-exit-1.7438498

The new social media landscape is fractured. It's admittedly a challenge for public servants: how many channels do you need to get your messaging out to your constituents? I'm afraid the answer appears to be "many."

One exciting new possibility, whose reach initially will be limited, but will grow and will have positive digital sovereignty implications is Gander -- an all-Canadian social media platform:

https://gandersocial.ca

For further information on data privacy accountability and the dark sides of US tech, note these articles from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives:

https://www.policyalternatives.ca/news-research/a-digital-infrastructure-plan/

https://www.policyalternatives.ca/news-research/what-if-canada-stopped-upholding-u-s-tech-companies-intellectual-property/

https://www.policyalternatives.ca/news-research/no-sovereignty-without-digital-sovereignty/

https://www.policyalternatives.ca/news-research/every-data-centre-is-a-u-s-military-base/

Getting your information out just isn't worth engaging with a racism-promoting, disinformation-peddling, sexual-abuse-enabling platform.

Sincerely

On the upside, I discovered my new favourite Canadian Senator – from Alberta of all places!

You can learn about her here...

and watch her put CBC on the hotseat

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