Uplift is leaving X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. Over the past two years, X has turned into an echo chamber of toxic hate and disturbing content.
X is owned by the world’s richest man, Elon Musk, who is leading the assault on US public service workers and government departments. He is threatening vital public supports and payments that millions of people rely on to survive, he wants to see reporters whose coverage he doesn’t like thrown in jail, he’s meddling with elections, and he’s defying court and Senate orders, causing many to declare what’s going on “a coup”.
As a people-powered community, we’re committed to a world where everyone thrives and politics works for everyone — not just for the filthy rich who buy and bully their way to the top. We can’t justify staying on a platform owned by somebody like Elon Musk any longer.
We hope you will join us on this journey. The more people who leave X, the more Elon Musk’s profits and power will take a hit — it’s the best way we can take a stand against his hateful actions.
If you still want to keep up with Uplift on social media, here’s what you can do:
- Come on over to the Uplift WhatsApp channel. You’ll be the first to know what’s happening, and it will make it easier for you to take action.
- Follow us on Bluesky, a safer alternative that is growing in popularity as more and more people leave X. It’s not influenced by a tech tycoon and has a strong focus on trust and safety. Setting up an account is straightforward if that’s what you want to do.
- We’ll still be active on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok. All of these platforms have problems — however, the reality is that social media is where most people get their information, stay in touch, share news, and have conversations. For this reason we’ll stay active on these other platforms.
How to delete your X/Twitter account
If you would also like to delete your X/Twitter account, here’s how you can do it.
Download your data: You may not want an archive of your X/Twitter account, but if you do, there’s a way you can download this before deleting your account. Follow these steps:
- Log into your X account and go to your account settings by clicking on the “more” icon in the navigation bar. Select your account from this menu.
- Here, you should see a button that says “download an archive of your data”. Click this button.
- It could take 24 hours or more for your archive to be ready. You’ll get a notification or an email when it’s ready to download.
- While you wait, you might want to let your followers know that you’re leaving and tell them where they can find you. If so, you can post something linking to your other social media accounts, or include your email address if you’d like.
- When your archive becomes available for download, do this. You can then move on to deleting your account.
Deleting your account: Start by clicking the “More” icon on your X account. Click “settings & privacy” from the dropdown menu. Next, click “Your account”, and here you can click a button that says “deactivate your account”. If you do this, your account will be deactivated. If you log back in within 30 days, your account will be reactivated. If you don’t log back in, your account will be permanently deleted after 30 days.
How we’re campaigning for a safer internet
- Stood up to Mark Zuckerberg and Meta with our ‘Face Up to Facebook’ campaign: Meta, which owns both Facebook and Instagram, has knowingly been harming young girls’ physical and mental health for years — so we got a group of incredible young people together to send a powerful message to our political leaders demanding that they rein in Big Tech.
- Fought to have recommender systems turned off by default: Social media algorithms are filling our feeds with hate, lies, and dangerous content that makes us sick and radicalises our loved ones. So, the Uplift community came together to demand that these algorithms be turned off by default, giving people a say over what they see online again. The new government has committed to taking action on recommender systems, so we know our message is getting through.
- Held our People’s Inquiry on Big Tech Harms: In October 2024, people from across Ireland came together to share how they, their communities, our planet, and our democracy are being harmed by big tech. Our hard-hitting People’s Inquiry report lays out how our mental and physical health is being worn away by big tech, and it makes it clear that big tech is making our politics more extreme while it also destroys the planet.
We have so much more planned for the year ahead. Together, we’re going to keep pushing our political leaders to listen to what our People’s Inquiry on Big Tech Harms laid out. But we now know that we can’t do that work while still being active on Elon Musk’s X.
