We no longer wanted to be part of a platform where hatred, incitement, calls for violence and disinformation seem to be part of the business model.
It’s no big surprise that many in the environmental movement have been moving away from Twitter since Elon Musk took it over, rebranded it as X, changed the algorithms and allowed now re-elected US president Donald Trump back onto the platform.
In November last year, The Guardian newspaper made headlines when it announced that it would close its 80 official accounts on X. “We think that the benefits of being on X are now outweighed by the negatives and that resources could be better used promoting our journalism elsewhere,” it stated.
For some, deleting accounts is a political statement. George Monbiot – who in August stated that he planned to remain on X despite calling it “an incubator for fascism” – also announced that he would stop using X for good on Monday, 20 January 2025, coinciding with Trump’s inauguration as US president.
Leaving
In Germany, environmental NGOs launched a campaign to persuade people to leave X. Dubbed ‘eXit’, the campaign was started by the country’s Climate Alliance of around 150 organisations.
Leon Mohr, spokesman for Bioland explained that the idea for the eXit campaign was born out of its opposition to all forms of violence and discrimination.
“We no longer wanted to be part of a platform where hatred, incitement, calls for violence and disinformation seem to be part of the business model – and since the takeover of X by Elon Musk, we found this increasingly to be the case.”
In July, almost 50 partners joined the campaign by leaving X, he said. “That is quite remarkable – if only because each organisation had to go through its own processes, some of which had long lead times,” he said.
For others, the reason for reducing engagement with X was more practical.
Experiment
“Twitter was working less and less well, we just weren't getting the reactions to posts that we were getting three years ago,” says Mark Avery, co-founder of environmental legal campaigners Wild Justice.
“I could cope with the trolling, but it didn't connect me with the people I wanted to be connected with – it’s rubbish now compared with how it used to be,” he said.
Katharine Hayhoe, the climate scientist, concurs. An early adopter of Twitter, Hayhoe found it invaluable for connecting directly with people about climate science, and for sharing knowledge with other experts. Then Musk took over.
We no longer wanted to be part of a platform where hatred, incitement, calls for violence and disinformation seem to be part of the business model.
“Almost immediately, my following - which had been increasing very steadily - froze, and the number of people who interacted with my posts dropped noticeably. Then the trolling increased,” she said.
Being a scientist, Hayhoe conducted an experiment on her account, repeating posts from earlier years and documenting the reaction. “The number of trolling comments for the same post increased by an order of magnitude,” she said.
“The abuse I put up with in order to reach fewer people was noticeable,” she said.
Replacement
NGOs who joined the eXit campaign are not necessarily looking for new social platforms to replace X, explained Moritz Schröder-Therre, communications director at Urgewald.
“Besides all the ethical reasons for our eXit, we also felt that X wasn’t the right channel to address our target audiences anymore", he said.
"We have learned that with a more focused approach on Instagram and LinkedIn we can connect with our key audiences even better.”
Mohr agrees. Bioland has primarily shifted content to LinkedIn. “There are controversial opinions on many topics and correspondingly more or less heated discussions. However, the basis for discussion is completely different and is based on mutual respect and democratic values.”
He puts this down to the fact that users have to use their real names and cannot hide behind fake profiles. The organisation has its highest reach on Instagram, he says.
Rocketed
“The culture of debate is much more civilized than on the barely moderated Musk platform X. That’s why there’s not a shred of regret about leaving,” he says.
Others have considered or tried alternatives such as Threads and Mastodon, both of which have also experienced significant growth since Musk bought Twitter.
However, Hayhoe reports a drop-off in reach on Threads in late summer, suspecting that algorithm changes are once again to blame. “There’s not much trolling on Threads, but for the same amount of effort, you reach a fraction of the people,” she said.
Enter relative newcomer Bluesky. The platform started as a research project at Twitter, but severed its links when Musk bought the platform in 2022.
When Bluesky opened to the public in February 2024, it had three million users, but this rose to nearly 14 million on the day US voters went to the polls. Subsequently, its base rocketed, reaching 25 million by early December.
Benefits
Many environmental NGOs, activist groups, scientists, journalists and Green politicians have now created accounts on the platform. These include The Ecologist, Greenpeace, WWF, the RSPB, Just Stop Oil, Extinction Rebellion, the Green Party and Carbon Brief.
Hayhoe still uses X, but mostly to encourage her followers to move to Bluesky. “Bluesky has taken off, and is increasing exponentially thanks to all the tools that they have. That appeals to scientists - we love tools,” she said.
Hayhoe has created multiple “starter packs” - a Bluesky tool that allows users to create lists of accounts which new users can use to rapidly find and follow large numbers of accounts under particular themes.
Her list of climate scientists on Bluesky has hit 4,000 members, which has already surpassed the 3,300 she connected with on Twitter in its heyday, she says.
“I now have just as much engagement on Bluesky with others in the academic community as I ever had on Twitter, and my personal benefits in terms of keeping up to date on the latest science is already on par with the maximum it ever was on Twitter,” Hayhoe says.
Betwixt
More recently, she has also noticed a big uptick in the number of followers in the general population, politicians, news organisations and journalists.
However, many are keeping their accounts on X open, Avery included.
For him, Bluesky feels like early days, since many people and organisations he wants to interact with have not yet opened accounts, including government departments and parliamentary committees.
In addition, those that have accounts are not necessarily interacting with each other in the way they used to on Twitter, he commented. “Bluesky feels like a village where not many of the houses are occupied, so we're a bit betwixt and between at the moment.
Productive
“I'm cutting links with Twitter all the time, but I'm still hanging on in there for some things. The more people who move, the easier it would be decide to just delete my account,” he said.
Schröder-Therre believes that fragmentation of the environmental movement across platforms will not necessarily increase polarisation.
“While every social network tends towards bubble formation, our post-eXit experience shows that productive, heterogeneous debate on and across other platforms is possible.”
Indeed, he believes in allowing the spread of disinformation, hate speech and discrimination, X actively promotes divisiveness and weakens democratic standards.
This Author
Catherine Early is a freelance environmental journalist and chief reporter for the Ecologist. Find her on Bluesky @catearly.bsky.social.
