The Friends World Committee for Consultation (FWCC) will be withdrawing from the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter.*
FWCC explain…
“We believe that our continued engagement with the site is no longer consistent with our commitment to truth, integrity or peace.
As a nonpartisan group, we are further concerned by investing resources in a platform whose owner is so publicly associated with one political party in the USA.
Canadian Friends Service Committee, Quakers in Ireland, Quakers in Britain, Friends Committee on National Legislation, Quaker Council for European Affairs, Quaker learning charities Woodbrooke (in the UK) and Pendle Hill (in the US), plus Quaker publications the Friend and Friends Journal have all announced their withdrawal from the platform alongside FWCC.
The majority of these groups are shifting their presence to alternative social platform, BlueSky (you can follow them here with this starter pack). This microblogging network has the advantage of being decentralised, and is seen to be putting control of users’ feeds back in their own hands.
The advices and queries used as an aid to contemplation by Quakers in a number of countries encourage Friends to:
“Consider which of the ways to happiness offered by society are truly fulfilling and which are potentially corrupting and destructive. Be discriminating when choosing means of entertainment and information”.
We are acting on this advice.
Our General Secretary, Tim Gee commented:
“Quakers aren’t people who retreat from the world, but instead seek to engage with it. Most engagement with the world as it is involves a level of compromise. Part of the equation needs to be whether the good that might be achieved outweighs the bad. In the case of Twitter/X the scales have swung the wrong way.”