There I am, browsing through my X (formerly Twitter) following feed, which was once an important source of news, and I am struggling to find any tweets mentioning co-ops.
In recent months co-operative organisations have one by one quit Twitter, something we at Co-op News are also considering. Those still on the platform continue to post but their co-op content is not controversial enough to make it into users’ feeds.
Co-ops are not alone in leaving the platform, with the Guardian announcing it would stop posting on X in November 2024, in response to what it described as “disturbing content” featured on the platform.
A recent report by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism found that news publishers have witnessed big falls in referral traffic to news sites from Twitter (50%) over the last two years. The report also points out that the platform’s politicisation under Elon Musk’s ownership has changed how publishers view it, with most of them being less and less inclined to spend time or resources on it.
The report explains that the platform is widely viewed as “becoming less useful for journalists as well as increasingly toxic for the public”.
So what is driving this change? Firstly, the changes introduced by the social media platform since its takeover by Musk have led to an algorithmic prioritisation of controversial posts. Secondly, while all X users can see basic stats for individual posts, detailed analytics and management features, which were previously free, are now only available to premium X subscribers. While a basic X premium subscription is US$38.40 a year, co-ops do not, in general, want to help fund a platform whose values are not aligned with their own.
In an article announcing its decision to leave the platform, Christian Chavagneux, the president of Alternatives Economiques, said the French co-op no longer wished to intervene in a space “largely dedicated to promoting permanent confrontation and disinformation without moderation”.
“We no longer wish to contribute to feeding a company whose leader supports extreme political forces and puts his influence at the service of reactionary ideas. These choices, these values, are not ours,” it added.
One reason why some co-ops choose to keep posting on the platform is a desire to promote positive, solutions-based content and raise awareness about the co-operative business model. However, Alternatives Économiques does not think it can make a difference by continuing on the platform.
“We do not believe that by staying we will be able to ‘change the system from the inside’ and offer a light in a darkness that has become too deep,” said Chavagneux. “Especially since there are alternatives. We are not naive, the other social networks also have their flaws. But it is all a question of nuance, of degree.
Related: When social media goes bad, should co-ops break things off with their X?
“None of them has gone as far as X to take a path that we no longer want to follow. These other networks now represent for us terrain to conquer in order to keep our audience.”
Glasgow-based Media Co-op has adopted a similar approach, ceasing to post on Twitter from 6 February.
“Like many people in the third sector, we have been increasingly alarmed by the spread of hate speech, misinformation and harassment on X,” it said. “Our values guide everything we do: we want the world to be a socially just, inclusive place. As a co-op, we decided that X is no longer the right place for us.”
It added: “We still believe in the power of social media to connect people and empower communities. So, we’re staying active on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn and moving our posts to Bluesky.”
Another co-op organisation to join the exodus from X is Community Energy England (CEE), an umbrella group which represents over 310 community energy organisations and stakeholders. CEE said its members were “dedicated to creating a more sustainable, equitable, and resilient energy future”.
“As stewards of these values, we have reflected deeply on our continued presence on Twitter/X and have decided it is time to leave the platform,” it added.
“Twitter once served as a valuable tool for connecting with diverse audiences, sharing ideas, and amplifying the voices of our community. However, the platform has transformed significantly over the past couple of years and many of our members have taken the decision to leave, so we believe it is no longer a sufficiently effective tool for our work.”
CEE said it would continue to engage with its members and share news from the sector on other online platforms.
“We are pleased to announce our presence on BlueSky,” it said, “a platform we believe is now better suited to fostering conversations and sharing insights from across the community energy sector, and one to which many of our members have already moved.
“Additionally, we will remain active on LinkedIn as we know this is an important space for sharing knowledge and fostering dialogue with our members and the broader community energy sector.
“As we say goodbye to Twitter/X, we encourage you to connect with us on BlueSky and LinkedIn to continue being part of the nationwide community energy conversation.
“Thank you for your support and understanding as we take this step forward. Our BlueSky handle is: @commenergyengland.bsky.social. Our LinkedIn handle is: CommunityEnergyEngland.”
CG Scop, the French national federation for worker and multi-stakeholder co-ops, has joined 86 other associations and unions, who announced they would be leaving X on 20 January – the inauguration day of US president Donald Trump.
“This decision was taken in order to pursue the battle of ideas in dignity,” CG Stop said in a statement. “The lack of moderation and the configuration of algorithms encourage the proliferation of hateful content and the circulation of conspiracy and climate skeptic theories.
“By leaving X, the CG Scop is well aware of depriving itself of a communication channel to promote its actions, its fights, to challenge, to raise awareness… But this tool has become a serious danger to our movement and the respect for the dignity of people. The CG Scop is now migrating to Bluesky! You can already follow us by clicking here!”
Co-ops are not alone in moving to Bluesky, a platform that started as an internal project at Twitter in 2019, before becoming an independent company in 2021. Bluesky is emerging as the clear winner of this X exodus.
Between September 2024 and November 2024 alone, it more than doubled the number of its registered accounts from 9 to 20 million users. And with Elon Musk likely to stay at X, we can expect more co-operatives to leave the platform in the future.