It’s time for teams and leagues to leave X

It’s long past time for teams, leagues and news outlets who claim to support equity and diversity to stop using the platform formerly known as Twitter. There have been countless moments in the past few years where the site and its current owner, Elon Musk, have behaved in a manner which should lead to outrage, such as restoring long-banned accounts that spread neo-Nazi and anti-semitic ideology, racist rhetoric, and child sexual abuse material.

The site also reduced moderation, eliminated many anti-harassment policies, changed which posts and accounts get surfaced on the discover and trending tab, eliminated trusted account verification, and saw an increase in targeted abuse, particularly aimed at women and non-white users. Many people did stop using the site in response to those changes, including the Sounder at Heart, Ride of the Valkyries and Nos Audietis accounts, but most major news outlets, leagues and teams remain active on the site.

Without getting into the politics of how Musk has manipulated the algorithm to promote accounts with certain viewpoints and suppress the reach of those whose political and social views differ from his, a horrific new trend has recently emerged as the built-in AI bot Grok’s capability to create high-quality images and short videos has improved. This feature has been exploited by trolls and abusers to create a flood of nonconsensual sexualized images, some of which feature minors. Another variation on the trend is creating images of women in demeaning poses being subjected to violence and assault.

As of writing, the company has provided no official response to inquiries from media about this horrific material, and has not turned off the feature or made any noticeable changes to combat nonconsensual porn and violent imagery – the extent of response so far as been a quote-tweet by Musk laughing about an AI-generated image of him in a skimpy bikini.

While users can adjust their filters and block problematic accounts to reduce their exposure to this content, their continued use of the platform serves as tacit approval of the behavior and keeps others on the site as well, giving legitimacy to the platform. Large accounts, such as those run by teams and leagues, have an outsized influence, keeping their followers using the site due to complacency and convenience, even if they feel uneasy about it.

As more of their target audience leaves the site engagement is massively down, and click-throughs are down due to how the algorithm now de-prioritizes content which includes links. We’ve entered an age of social media Balkanization with no single other platform emerging as the consensus heir to the Twitter of old, but there is little to be gained at this point by teams and leagues staying active on X. Making a deliberate choice to stop using it sends a message that your organization has standards and refuses to allow your brand to be associated with horrifically misogynistic and racist behavior. These organizations have already made a decision to not participate on platforms such as Gab and Truth Social, they can make the same decision about another platform now awash in sexist, racist and xenophobic trash.

Teams in the NWSL, WNBA, PWHL, and other women’s leagues can be the pioneers of this exodus, but they shouldn’t be the only ones leaving.

The major men’s sports leagues in the US also love to extol their anti-racist, anti-sexist bonafides. If a player or league sponsor was accused of doing something even half as heinous as what is depicted in the imagery being churned out continually via Grok, there would be a massive public outcry if the league didn’t take immediate and decisive action to sever the relationship and disavow the behavior.

Now, you might be saying this is all a bunch of virtue signaling. I agree. If an organization is willing to compromise on their purported values for social media reach, what does that signal to its fans? Why should fans believe any of their messaging when it comes to female empowerment, black history and equality, LGBTQA+ rights, AAPINH heritage, Latino/Latina heritage, or any of the other myriad ways in which they claim to celebrate diversity? Virtue signaling tells fans what an organization’s values are and why it is worth investing their time and money to support them.