Ottawa city councillor wants to challenge local tech sector to develop made-in-Ottawa alternative to ‘X’

App logos for Facebook, left, and X, formerly known as Twitter, are seen on a mobile phone in this 2024 photo. (AP Photo/Paula Ulichney)

An Ottawa city councillor says she intends to issue a challenge to the local tech sector to develop a made-in-Ottawa alternative to the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter.

Laura Dudas, the councillor for Orléans West-Innes Ward, intends to move a motion at the March 4 Finance and Corporate Services Committee meeting that calls on city staff to create a plan to remove city-affiliated accounts from the X platform and migrate them to unspecified alternatives.

While Dudas does not name the owner of X, Elon Musk, in her motion, she says the platform and its owner no longer possess or reflect the values of transparency, impartiality, respect, and accountability.

Dudas attempted to raise the issue at February’s finance committee meeting, but the motion was deferred to the meeting in March.

Speaking on Newstalk 580 CFRA’s Ottawa Now with Kristy Cameron on Tuesday, Dudas said the ideal scenario would be a Canadian-made platform.

“If we could ever find a made-in-Canada, made-in-Ottawa version, that would be wonderful,” she said. “There is not something that is perfect for the city’s needs at this moment, but I like the fact that this motion is coming up at a time where it sparks a conversation.”

Dudas said she plans to add an element to her motion that calls on the tech sector to develop something local that could be used in place of X to disseminate timely information.

“We have such an intelligent population here. We have an incredible tech sector. Maybe there is somebody out there that could come up with a made-in-Ottawa solution, where we could count on it, where we could use it,” she said. “I almost like that aspect of turning to a more self-sufficient, trustworthy platform that supports local.”

Musk purchased Twitter in 2022 and renamed it “X”, making sweeping changes to many of its processes, such as user verification. Since that time, Musk has moved into the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump through his “Department of Government Efficiency” that has been slashing federal contracts and jobs.

Trump, meanwhile, has been threatening Canada with annexation and export tariffs, the latter of which are slated to come into force the day Dudas plans to move her motion.

“We’re in this circumstance in Canada where our relationship with our U.S. partners is soured. We’re facing the potential of Trump tariffs and what that impact will be, and we know that X-Corp and its owner have played a key role in this,” said Dudas. “The timing seems to be right to have this conversation about whether the City of Ottawa should be relying on X as a source of providing information to our residents.”

Other Canadian municipalities have announced they are no longer using X. The City of Cambridge, Ont. said Monday it had stopped posting to X due to concerns regarding the website’s reliability, accountability and direction. The District of North Vancouver deactivated its X account in January, shortly after Trump’s inauguration.

The City of Ottawa has social media accounts on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube, where it shares information, but its X account has the highest following, with nearly 263,000 followers. The city has created an account on Bluesky, but it has not posted yet, and it does not appear to have an account on Meta’s Threads, the Instagram-linked microblogging platform. The city also allows users to sign up for email alerts.

The city also has an app for Apple and Android devices, but it is poorly reviewed and does not appear to be regularly updated.

Dudas said she hopes her motion triggers conversations within the city.

“To challenge not only city staff but maybe there is that challenge to the community. Can we do better? Is there a more efficient way that is factual and gets the information out to our residents? Maybe there’s not,” she said. “But I think this is the time to talk about it, particularly as we’re looking down the potential of Trump tariffs coming into place.”