“Hate speech is everywhere.” California parliamentary Democrats leave the platform
At the urging of Congress Speaker Robert Rivas (D-Hollister), most Democrats in the California parliament left the social media platform of President Trump’s loyal billionaire Elon Musk.
Rivas said Thursday that 58 of the 60 Democrats at the conference will or have stopped, sharing information and interacting with voters through X on its official government account, formerly known as Twitter.
Rivas said Exodus was a concern over the company’s failure to address misinformation, account falsification, and issues of racism, gender discrimination and anti-Semitic outposts.
“Hate speech is everywhere on X, companies have no responsibility, and the misinformation of fake accounts is like this – fake,” Rivas said in a statement. “I don’t think taxpayer resources should go to X.”
Rivas’s office describes Exodus as one of the largest resignations of elected official X.
The Democratic decision is Musk’s embrace of Trump and his recent efforts to the gut workforce through his administration’s efficiency department.
James Gallagher, the Republican leader of Yuba City, said in an interview that Democrats made a mistake by withdrawing from “a vital part of the public square.”
Democrats criticized Congressional Republicans for not holding face-to-face city halls, and they have become a forum against Musk, Trump and cuts to federal labor. “At the same time, you’re evacuating the space where a lot of conversations are happening – I think it’s a little hypocritical,” Gallagher said.
Gallagher said when Democrats complain about false information and hate speech, they usually mean “they don’t like the opinions expressed.” Where there is hate speech on X, he said: “I think it’s called out.”
A Rivas spokesman said the departure was not a retreat from the disagreement, but a decision to stop supporting a platform “a platform that was replaced by harmful false information, hate speech, anti-Semitism and racism, which was run by people who promote this hateful rhetoric.”
His office said Democrats will continue to share information on other social media platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and Tiktok.
“Democracy depends on just message, not the whimsical idea of a billionaire,” Rivas said.
General Assembly Majority Leader Cecilia Aguiar Curry (DD-Winters), a senior lieutenant at Rivas, said Musk did not invest in content moderation, resulting in “rampant misinformation” and “endangering our friends and neighbors in emergencies”.
“It is irresponsible to continue to encourage our voters to seek reliable public safety information on X,” Aguiar-Curry said.
More than a year ago, conference illustration Mark Bellman (D-Menlo Park) left X. He said he took a short break after Musk reactivated Sandy Hook conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, and then found that he hadn’t missed the “complete” platform at all.
Convention illustration Tina McKinnor (D-Hawthorne) told her followers in a February video that she left the platform because it became “very hateful, very mean” and full of misinformation.
In other conference rooms in California, state Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) left X last month for “negative changes,” including “negative changes” including extremist content, spam posts and “weird changes to the algorithm,” which he said affected participation in posts related to his work. San Diego Regional Senator Akilah Weber Pierson (D-La Mesa) left X in December.
California lawmakers have not deleted their accounts, so their old positions will remain available.
Rivas’ office said this is partly to prevent people from pretending to be elected officials: If a user deletes their X account, others can ask for a username 30 days later.
