Holocaust education organisations and experts worldwide are quitting social media platform Twitter/X en masse in a collective stand against the online sharing of dangerous and harmful narratives.
In a group statement, the 39 organisations and individuals involved in Holocaust education, remembrance and research as well as fighting contemporary antisemitism, confirmed they will stop posting on the social media platform as part of their ‘Not One More Word’ campaign.
All involved have vowed to silence their accounts as of 13 December.
Signatories include The Association of Jewish Refugees, Holocaust Centre North, Bergen-Belsen Memorial, Sir Martin Gilbert Learning Centre and the Museu do Holocausto de Curitiba, Brazil, alongside Dame Helen Hyde, a trustee of the National Holocaust Centre and Museum, the Holocaust Education Trust and an advisor to the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust, Austrian historian Brigitte Bailer and film and media historian Professor Steven Alan Carr.
The full statement reads: “Twitter was once a platform where we could build communities and engage in productive communication in support of our work. Then Twitter became X and over the ensuing two years, its users have suffered changes that have made the platform a far different place than it once was. Misinformation, distortion and abuse have flourished while security and content moderation measures have all but disappeared.
“Meanwhile, as a business, X relies on our content to keep its users engaged. More engagement means more advertising revenue. Simply put, X profits from our presence there – it profits from each word we post. We say NOT ONE MORE WORD. It’s time to stop posting. We will silence our accounts as of 13 December 2024. In the coming days, you may find us posting links to our other social media accounts and publicising the ways in which you can continue to engage with our work elsewhere. And we pledge to support our valued colleagues who join in this effort by promoting each other’s content however possible.”
Screenshot of full list of signatories
Alex Maws, head of education & heritage, the Association of Jewish Refugees, said: “The AJR has advocated for Jewish refugees and survivors for over 80 years. Today, we continue to represent the original victims of Nazism and their descendants and calling out dangerous and harmful narratives on X is a modern-day example of this.
Screenshot: AJR
“So, together with leading experts and organisations, from across the globe, we collectively have determined that posting on X does more harm than good in our work to combat Holocaust distortion and antisemitism. Social media platforms come and go, and so when misinformation and abuse become normalised on one of them, it’s time to take our content elsewhere.”
Signatory Debra Brunner, chief executive of UK-based Jewish heritage charity The Together Plan, told Jewish News: “There will be no more words from The Together Plan on Twitter. There is power in the silence.’
