Halifax municipal accounts leave X, prompting questions about emergency communications

Halifax Fire is leaving the social network X and shifting to Bluesky.

The Halifax Regional Municipality has officially launched accounts on the social media platform Bluesky – and will soon be leaving X, formerly Twitter, prompting questions about emergency communications.

The primary HRM account, Halifax Fire & Emergency and Halifax Transit are among six accounts making the switch. They will be inactive on X by July 14.

While emergency municipal alerts (hfxALERT) are separate from social media, public safety and emergency communication are key focus areas for any government considering changing its social media presence, too.

“It’s very top of mind, in fact, it’s the primary and the first consideration when they start talking about what platforms to use,” says Giles Crouch, a digital anthropologist who is working with cities across Canada and the U.S. that are considering different platforms.

“The number one thing is, ‘What do we do in emergencies and what platform works?’”

That’s why some emergency organizations are sticking with the status quo.

Halifax Regional Police, Halifax Water and Halifax Public Libraries are all excluded from the move, the municipality said in a news release on Wednesday, as “they each have unique governance structures, oversight boards and their own communications teams.”

“I think it would be a little irresponsible for us to switch to a new platform at this point in time,” Halifax Regional Police Const. Martin Cromwell told CTV News Atlantic on Thursday.

That’s because a lot of the force’s social media usage is for public safety messaging, and he says they don’t want to leave behind nearly 140,000 X followers.

“For us to switch from this platform, our current platform, may be damaging to people,” he says. “They may not get that messaging.”

In April, city councillors voted 16-to-one in favour of cutting ties with its X as an official social media platform.

“It’s a decision that was taken as a result of public input that was gathered‚” says Mayor Andy Fillmore. “It was also a part of a scan of other jurisdictions, and I’m supportive of it. X has become a bit of a gnarly place.”

Councillor David Hendsbee was the lone dissenting vote.

“It’s just political backlash that people have become very populist about,” he says. “I just felt that, even though the Twitter was bought up by Elon Musk and renamed or rebranded X, it’s still a very popular platform a lot of people are using.”

All municipal accounts – except for Halifax police, Halifax Water, and Halifax Public Libraries – will be removed from X by July 14.

The municipality and Halifax Fire both refused an interview Thursday, instead offering a statement.

The union representing Halifax firefighters says it will still use X, as it’s been a “very effective tool for us in engaging people on public safety issues.”

In a statement to CTV News Atlantic, the provincial government says its goal is to reach as many people as possible.

“We recognize that some Nova Scotians are leaving X, but at this time we are maintaining our X account to ensure we aren’t leaving anyone behind,” says Alyse Hand, a spokesperson with the Executive Council Office. “This is especially important for emergency situations where we want to use all communications platforms available.”

Crouch says there are fewer bots on Bluesky, as it’s “harder to be automated and run the bots” when compared to X.

“It is becoming increasingly difficult to determine what is real and what isn’t, especially as we see improvements with artificial intelligence creating videos and images as well,” Crouch says.

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