Top civil servants urge Dutch gov't to abandon social media platform X

Top civil servants have urged the Jetten I Cabinet to withdraw from the social media platform X. Since Elon Musk bought the platform in 2022, X has become “increasingly polarized” with less moderation and algorithm changes that lead to “an increase in disinformation, racism, dsicrimination, misogyny, and anti-Semitism,” the Information Council wrote to the the Cabinet in a memo on April 9, the Volkskrant reports.

The Information Council consists of the directors of communications from all 12 government Ministries. They write that X “actively facilitates disinformation and harmful and criminal content,” thereby violating European and Dutch regulations. The central government’s continued use of X is “at odds” with the principle that the government “adheres to its own laws and regulations and does not expose citizens to content that conflicts with these.”

If the Cabinet follows the Information Council’s advice, it will affect the official accounts of the 28 Ministers and State Secretaries in this Cabinet, as well as the Ministries’ accounts. The civil servants advise shutting some accounts down completely, and using others only “where X has demonstrable added value,” such as for maintaining diplomatic contacts and as a means of communications in crises.

In addition to the official accounts, half of the Jetten I Cabinet members also have a personal X profile. Whether these will be incorporated in the Information Council’s advice is unclear.

The civil servants also warned that there are risks of leaving X, including that the decision would be “framed” as a “withdrawal from (part of) the public debate.” It could also make it more difficult to contact hard-to-reach groups.

“There is no ideal choice,” they wrote, but added that continuing with X in the current situation simply entails excessive risks. These include exposing people looking for government information to all kinds of criminal content, but also contributing to the spread of misinformation. “Inaccurate information piggybacks on our efforts, undermining the reliability of government information at the source.”

The Cabinet is expected to make a decision on what to do with this advice after the summer.