Why I’m deactivating my X account for good

Emily Price

It’s no secret that in recent months the social media platform X, formerly Twitter, has become a cesspit of far right thugs, bots, misinformation, hate speech and an artificial intelligence tool that can digitally manipulate images to sexualise children.

But when the platform first began slipping into the sewer following Elon Musk’s take over in October 2022, I felt it was important to keep my account active.

In 2024, the Guardian announced it would stop posting to the platform because the “benefits of being on X are now outweighed by the negatives”.

The newspaper also warned that US presidential election “underlined” its concerns that its owner, Musk, had been able to use X to “shape political discourse.”

But when many of my left leaning followers flocked to the new social media platform Bluesky in search of a less toxic environment, I chose to stay on X because I didn’t think it was right to allow the platform to become an echo chamber of right-wing content.

Political journalists like myself also rely on X to keep abreast of what politicians are saying. Although many Plaid Cymru and Welsh Labour politicians moved to Bluesky during a surge in the app’s activity in 2024, the Welsh Conservatives and Reform UK politicians have remained on Musk’s platform.

I worried that deactivating my X account would make it harder for me to keep track of online posts by all elected figures across the political spectrum.

Collapsed

So why now have I suddenly decided to pack in X for good?

Many of Nation.Cymru’s readers know that last year my 11-year-old daughter B was diagnosed with Burkitt Lymphoma – the most aggressive human cancer there is.

The diagnosis was a shock to my family as B had always been so healthy – never suffering much more than a mild cold previously.

But in November, B collapsed whilst leaving the house for school. We later found out she had a 15cm tumour consuming her left ovary. Doctors told us it was unlikely the mass was malignant – but they were wrong and a week before Christmas, B started five intense rounds of chemotherapy to save her life.

The chemo regime for kids with Burkitt Lymphoma is hard and the children suffer badly with horrific side effects that leave them with no hair, an ulcerated mouth and stomach, exhaustion, low blood counts and a high risk of infections such as sepsis.

Blown away

My husband and I have been genuinely blown away by the amount of support we have received from family, friends, Nation.Cymru readers, politicians and even the Welsh actor Michael Sheen.

Thankfully after major surgery and strong chemotherapy drugs, B’s MRI scan last week found no residual trace of disease. She will go through one more round of chemotherapy as planned – but we hope that by Easter she will be back in school with her friends.

B’s nurse rang us with the good news while we were shopping in a supermarket. We cried and held each other whilst puzzled shoppers looked on. It was the first slither of hope we had received in several months.

I wanted to share the good news with the people of Wales that had supported us from the beginning. The people that had messaged me kind words, donated money and sent B supportive gifts to help her through the tough period.

I posted a photo of B to X foolishly thinking only the Welsh politics corner of the app would pay attention.

Notifications

But the next day I woke up to hundreds of thousands of notifications. The image had been viewed millions of times, gaining attention largely from Christian Trump supporters who claimed my daughters’ recovery was a “miracle from God” and not the work of strong drugs and trained medical professionals.

Several friends and one of B’s nurses told me the image was being posted by other content creators such as ‘Banter King’ on Facebook and ‘The Archbishop of Banterbury’ on Instagram who were using it to farm engagement.

I contacted both accounts and asked them to remove my daughter’s image – but neither responded to my pleas.

I reported both images and contacted Meta’s media team. The UK branch responded quickly, apologising and launching an investigation.

But one vile user on X went one step further – publishing B’s image and claiming that she was their own daughter.

Scam

The account in question ‘@Maryamart011’ also included a link in its bio as part of a scam to try to make money from donators who believed they were supporting B.

A scroll through the account revealed that it existed solely with the purpose of using images of sick children to farm engagement and make money.

My supportive followers on X got to work reporting the account and requesting a community note on B’s image to highlight that she was not the daughter of the account user.

I also reached out to X’s support page and the platform’s safety page which purports to safeguard children. However I only received AI generated responses.

Shockingly, one of the AI replies instructed me to sign up for X’s premium package if I wanted to speak to a “human agent” who could escalate it further.

Clicks

At the time of publication of this article, the @Maryamart011 account remains active and is continuing to use images of sick children – including B – without permission to gain clicks and scam users for cash donations.

X has done nothing to stop it.

Like many women connected to politics, I’ve tolerated a lot on the platform over the past year or so – abuse from the far right, misogyny and harassment from men, bots flocking to any post I publish that criticises Reform UK and a bombardment of toxic content and hate speech.

But for me, the use of B’s image is the final straw – I cannot remain a user of a platform that allows such blatant exploitation of a minor with no proper mechanism to report it. Today I will be deactivating my account and have no intention of returning to X unless major changes are made to its safeguarding policies.

Readers that wish to continue following my work covering Welsh politics can do so on my Bluesky account.