The Halifax Regional Municipality has officially launched Bluesky accounts one month ahead of a self-imposed departure from the X (formerly Twitter) platform following a council decision earlier this year. Last April, council voted 16-to-one that the municipality should discontinue its eight official X accounts, which have a total of 243,545 followers. Council made the decision after receiving a staff report which noted the municipality had been reevaluating its social media presence in recent years due to “significant volatility” on the apps. “Staff placed particular focus on the status of X, due to concerns with policy and operational changes undertaken by this platform and began to investigate alternative options among emerging platforms,” the report reads. “As part of the assessment process, concerns regarding X’s governance, operational stability, declining user engagement, misinformation, disinformation and the introduction of paid features limiting access to analytics were identified. “Also, X’s evolving policies and content moderation practices were deemed to be increasingly inconsistent with our organizational values, most notably diversity and inclusion, respect, integrity, accountability and evidence-based decision making.” Halifax has activated six Bluesky accounts, including: Bluesky originated as a research project at Twitter in 2019, but it became an independent social media platform in 2021. The report cited the app as a strong alternative to X due to its similar interface to the older platform, the ability for people to see posts without signing in and transparent content moderation. “Use of all X accounts managed by the municipality’s Corporate Communications division will be discontinued by July 14, 2025,” a news release from the municipality reads. “Halifax Water, Halifax Regional Police and Halifax Public Libraries are not part of the municipality’s transition to Bluesky. “While these organizations are related to the municipality, they each have unique governance structures, oversight boards and their own communications teams. As a result, they manage their social media strategies and platforms separately.” For more Nova Scotia news, visit our dedicated provincial page
