Friends Journal, Other Quaker Groups Withdraw from X

Citing the ongoing amplification of incivility on X, the microblogging platform formerly known as Twitter, several Quaker organizations officially stopped posting updates on X and increased involvement on Bluesky starting on December 16. In addition to Friends Journal, Friends groups that have departed from X include Canadian Friends Service Committee, Quakers in Ireland, Quakers in Britain, Friends Committee on National Legislation, Quaker Council for European Affairs, Woodbrooke study center in the UK, Pendle Hill study center in Pennsylvania, The Friend magazine, and Friends World Committee for Consultation (FWCC), according to a press release from FWCC.

Tech billionaire Elon Musk, who president-elect Donald Trump selected to lead a soon-to-be-established Department of Government Efficiency, acquired the social media site in a $44 billion deal in October 2022. He currently co-owns the company along with rapper Sean “Diddy” Combs as well as Qatari and Saudi firms. Previous Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, who helped found Bluesky, has criticized Musk’s leadership at Twitter.

Ron Hogan, audience development specialist at Friends Publishing Corporation, publisher of Friends Journal and the QuakerSpeak video series (which Hogan says will also stop posting on X), commented in writing:

I became concerned about the cultural changes taking place on Twitter immediately after Musk’s acquisition, but we initially believed that it was still worth the effort to scatter the seed of our messages and hope that some of it might land on good soil. Over time, however, it became increasingly clear that the ground at X had become choked with thorns, that it was no longer a place where voices like ours could flourish. When FWCC informed us of their plans, I consulted our staff and we agreed it made sense to join with them and the other Friends taking part in this action.

Paul Parker, recording clerk for Quakers in Britain, said in a statement:

Quakers are led by their faith to work to make the world more equal and more peaceful. This engagement inevitably includes some compromise, talking and listening to others. We seek to answer that of God which is to be found in every person. It seems that X is no longer a forum where this can happen. When the bad outweighs the good, it is time to see other methods of engaging where it is easier to find common ground with our fellow human beings.

Hogan noted that some Friends argue for remaining on X in hopes of connecting with users there. He believes the discourse at X has coarsened to the point that further engagement would be counterproductive.

“We aren’t hiding our light under a bushel by leaving,” he argued. “The algorithm is throwing a bushel over our light as long as we remain.”

Hogan also noted Jesus’s biblical recommendation to shake the dust off one’s feet when leaving a town in which one feels unwelcome and unheard.

One dissenter from this view is Quaker author Alistair McIntosh, who posted on X, “I prefer it when Quakers bring an alternative presence to conflict zones. Has God not already got sufficient angels in heaven? Can we not, as our 1947 Nobel Peace Prize citation quotes it, act ‘to build up in a spirit of love what has been destroyed in a spirit of hatred.’”