The Town of Riverview will continue using ‘X’ as a way to promote its community.

A vote by the Town Council on Monday night defeated a motion asking for them to cease using the social media platform.

The final vote was three in favour of the motion and four against.

Councillor Cecile Cassista voted against the motion. She says this is a decision of the staff, not council, “Council should not interfere with how staff do their work or what tools they use. Staff work under the direction of the CAO, not the council. I see this as an operational matter.”

She adds that social media is one of the strongest foundations of effective communication, and who owns social media should not be a criteria.

The motion was introduced by Councillor Heath Johnson at the February 24 meeting, due to the growing controversy since ‘X’ was purchased by Elon Musk.

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“I do not believe we should be supporting a platform that is full of misinformation, hate speech and anti-semitic content,” Johnson said.

“We have many other options at our disposal, and we should use those instead,” Johnson added at last night’s meeting.

The three councillors to vote against the motion were Cassista, John Coughlan and Richard Blackstock. Mayor Andrew Leblanc was the tiebreaking vote.

A town staff report noted that X is not as popular as other social media channels, such as Facebook and Instagram.

The town reaches about 100 to 200 people per post on X and sees an average of three engagements per post.

The report, submitted by Communications Manager Ashly Barron, also said they have not experienced an influx of comments or messages that are inappropriate.

With files from Brad Perry