Scotland's librarians body steps back from social media platform X due to 'hateful content and misinformation'

The body representing Scotland’s librarians is stepping back from X – formerly known as Twitter – due to “harmful content” and “misinformation.”

The Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals in Scotland (CILIPS) announced the decision to come off the platform on Monday.

The organisation said that the level of “mis and dis-information” seen on the platform and an “algorithm that appears to promote hateful content” were some of the reasons.

X, formerly known as Twitter, is run by Tesla billionaire Elon Musk.

CILIPS said it will review its decision to leave in the coming months and will intermittently check X for notifications and messages.

A statement read: “CILIPS have made the decision that the organisation will take a step back from X and will no longer post regularly to the platform.

“CILIPS updates will instead be posted to our website, our LinkedIn and our Instagram.

“We recognise that misinformation is not caused by one platform alone and is a far bigger societal problem, however, we believe that the level of mis and dis-information that has been seen on the X platform and an algorithm that appears to promote hateful content are increasingly incompatible with our ethical principles.

“We will continue to work with partners and the Scottish Media and Information Literacy Community of Practice to tackle this issue and increase levels of media and information literacy via our members and the services they work for.

“We will still keep our profile active and will intermittently check for notifications and messages, and will review our decision in a few months time.”