Dublin City Council stops using X following review of the social media platform
Sarah Slater
Dublin City Council has stopped using the social media platform X following a review of the social media platform.
The council is the second local authority in the country to do so over X’s creation of child pornography and the decision applies to the main council account and to subsidiary accounts such as Dublin Fire Brigade.
Kilkenny County Council stopped using X at the start of the month, and other organisations such as Swim Ireland, the National Women’s Council, the Irish Refugee Council, and An Taisce also stopped using it this month.
ðWe will no longer be posting on X.
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— Irish Refugee Council (@IrishRefugeeCo) January 20, 2026
This follows an emergency motion proposed by Green Party councillors Hazel Chu, Feljin Jose, Ray Cunningham, Carolyn Moore, and Claire Byrne at the city council meeting on January 12th.
Councillor Chu welcomed the management’s decision to stop posting on X and to “ultimately leave the platform”.
Cllr Chu pointed out that every politician, political party, and state agency “needs to come off X”.
“It felt very wrong that Dublin City Council was using the platform to promote library times when that very platform is generating and sharing child sexual abuse material, or that the HSE is paying X for a premium account to communicate advice on women’s health when the same platform is literally stripping women of their mental health and privacy.”
In the emergency motion, the councillors said that they believe X, formerly known as Twitter, has become a “vehicle for abuse and the promotion of far-right, racist and divisive politics”.
In the last couple of weeks several regulators at home and abroad have launched investigations into X. Taoiseach Micheál Martin is to contact X to request its attendance before the Oireachtas Media Committee.
The motion stated: “Grok the AI chatbot of X that was relentlessly pushed out by Elon Musk has been violating individual rights whilst potentially breaching laws governing child safety and harassment communications.”
Councillor Jose added that the council as the state’s largest local authority has “an obligation and duty of care to its citizens”.
“Continuing to publish on a platform that is actively causing harm to individuals, especially children would be against the council’s core principles. Our motion was to ensure the council fulfilled its moral obligation,” he noted.
