Alternatives to X

Make a positive decision

3rd February, 2025

OK, so you’ve read my plea to leave X , and you’re thinking… ok, they have a point, but…

How do we start?

First of all, I have to acknowledge that this isn’t a simple as just deleting your account. Many organisations have had a presence on X (fka Twitter) for a long time and have built up a substantial audience. I’m not suggesting you throw that away, yet.

However, even aside from Elon Musk’s politics and behaviours there’s no doubt that audiences are leaving X behind, looking for alternatives. So should you.

Be elsewhere

Before you leave, you probably need somewhere else to be. At the very least, I’d suggest that you have an RSS-enabled blog or content feed on your own site. I’d strongly recommend that you look at one of the open-source, federated social platforms like Mastodonjoinmastodon.org. You can use almost any mastodon server, though I would make sure you pick one where the values of the server admin are aligned to your organisation’s. You can create your own, but I’ll cover that later.

As many servers are run as non-profit, and many are community-focussed efforts, it’s a kindness to reach out to the admin before you join, especially if you’re going to be bringing a large audience with you that might swamp a small instance. You can find out who that is on most servers /about page.

Quiet quitting

Top priority for any organisation is to simply stop using X to advertise. Feeding the beast with content is one thing, but explicitly giving them money? Please don’t.

Next is to stop making social media posts. If your organisation’s website has a lot of content with embedded tweets, perhaps consider putting them behind a warning, like the BBC does.

Finally, you should probably get rid of that link to your X account in your social icons. After all, it’s beginning to feel a bit like a Swastika.

Making a noise

If you’re the kind of organisation that has a social conscience or a strong sense of ethical values, you might want to make more of a noise about leaving X.

Consider making a splash on X itself, give your audience a deadline. Tell them that you’re leaving and why, and let them know when. Make sure that they all know where you’re going to be and post links to your websites social pages.

If you’re the kind of organisation that holds sway with the press, please consider Issuing a press release regarding your decision to leave the X platform. Other organisations may be encouraged by your actions.

LRG