Denver City Council deleted its account on X and left the platform this week, joining an exodus of liberals and others from the site formerly known as Twitter.
Go to the city council X page and you’ll get this message: “This account doesn’t exist. Try searching for another.”
The platform once let council members speak to the public, and vice versa. But it has become too entwined with President Donald Trump’s administration, said Council President Amanda Sandoval.
Elon Musk bought the platform in 2022 and has since become one of the most powerful allies of Trump. Under Musk, the platform has cut professional content moderators, reinstated accounts including a neo-Nazi and a white nationalist, saw a reported rise in hate speech and became a MAGA megaphone. Musk has said that his mission is to remove limits and encourage free speech.
Denver City Council kept its account active over those years. But in recent weeks, Musk has assumed a position of enormous influence in the new administration, leading the Department of Government Efficiency in making fast-moving cuts to federal funding and staff while gaining access to sensitive systems.
“As long as it's owned by Elon Musk, and he's an appointee of the president, and he's bidding on contracts for the federal government, I will have made the decision that we cannot have City Council be a part of that,” Sandoval told Denverite.
How have council members responded to the changes at X?
Several individual council members, including Chris Hinds and Sarah Parady, also have removed their accounts or quit posting, while others including Shontel Lewis and Kevin Flynn continue to share information on the platform.
Back in October, Councilmember Chris Hinds announced: “Given the actions of X and its leadership, it has become clear that X is no longer impartial and unbiased. We will continue to evaluate that decision, but for now, please visit us on other platforms.”
He told Denverite the city council is making the right decision.
Parady says she has not had an X account, personally or in her elected capacity, for over a year.
“As it became clear that the site was intentionally tolerating and even amplifying violent and dangerous ideas,” she wrote Denverite. “I did not want to contribute to its profitability or its hold on public dialogue.”
When Musk took over the platform, he promised a reduction in bot activity and an end to restrictions on free speech.
A recent study from the Public Library of Science’s peer-reviewed scientific journal, Plos One, demonstrates bot activity has not decreased since Musk took over, though hate speech rose by 50 percent. The platform’s daily active users also have declined by 13 percent, TechCrunch reported.
Back in Sept. 2023, Parady raised her concerns with city council and asked whether the body should remove the account. Sandoval first started thinking about Council leaving X during that conversation.
But the council president’s concerns grew over the past two weeks, as she read about how billionaire owner Musk, as a presidential appointee working on slashing the federal government through the Department of Government Efficiency, owns companies with government contracts.
As an elected official, she would never permit her staffers to do the same, she said. She believes the presidential administration should be held to the same ethical standards.
Other city agencies still use X.
Meanwhile, Mayor Mike Johnston and multiple other agencies continue posting on X.
The mayor largely boosts the city through the account, often getting harsh criticism from his critics in return.
"We have not made any immediate plans to move away from X completely," said Johnston's spokesperson Jordan Fuja. "We're always evaluating our approach to make sure the Mayor is connecting with Denverites in the best way possible. Our focus is to meet Denverites where they are, keep them informed about what's happening in the city and foster productive conversations by constantly assessing the tools we use to ensure we engage with the community effectively,"
The Denver Police Department uses the account as its primary communication tool for updating the community on crime.
"The Denver Police Department is not currently planning to completely move away from using the X social media platform," wrote Sgt. Jay Casillas to Denverite. "DPD has significant reach and public engagement on that platform, and many users have come to rely on the information that we post of current incidents around Denver.
Yet DPD has embraced other social media platforms, including Threads and Bluesky and plans to continue assessing them as they are created.
"If DPD ever plans to move away from X, announcements will be made to ensure all our followers know where they can get public safety information from the Denver Police Department," Casillas added.
Editor's note: This article was updated Feb. 21, 2025, 4:43 p.m. with comments from the Denver Police Department and the mayor's office.
