A Scottish charity has deleted its Twitter account over concerns with the platform’s ability to enable a safe environment to share information.
LGBT Youth Scotland has taken the calculated risk to leave the platform, citing ethical reasons for shutting down its account, which was its biggest social media platform with more than 33,000 followers.
Chief executive, Dr Mhairi Crawford said: “After careful consideration of our mission to support LGBTQ+ young people, we felt our only option was to leave Twitter.
“Since Twitter’s takeover in 2022 we have become increasingly concerned by a number of statements and decisions that have had a real impact on the LGBTQ+ community.
“Our following on Twitter was the largest across all of our platforms but we have noticed a troubling increase in extreme views and targeted attacks towards members of the LGBTQ+ community, as well as our own charity directly.
“We want to create safe spaces for young people to feel hopeful about the world around them and their own futures and, ultimately, Twitter does not make this possible.
“We hope our move will give other organisations confidence to leave platforms where negativity is so prevalent.”
Those who still want to get in touch with charity can do so through Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn as well as visiting its website.
The charity also offers daily live chat sessions where those who need support can anonymously chat to members of the all LGBTQ+ issues informed team.
It joins a number of high profile figures have departed twitter in recent months citing concerns over moderation and disinformation, including Elton John, Stephen Fry, Whoopi Goldberg and Gigi Hadid.
LGBT Youth Scotland supports LGBTQ+ young people, working with 13–25 year olds across the country. It also delivers the LGBT Charter programme to schools, organisations and businesses. Last month it announced that it had reached nearly 60% of high schools with the charter.
The charity’s goal is to make Scotland the best place to grow up for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex young people.
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