A survey by the Noscura communications agency shows that 14 out of 15 Dutch universities have stopped posting on X, formerly Twitter. Maastricht University has even deleted its account entirely. The only Dutch university still active on Twitter is TU Delft.
Ironically, the man now calling (in Dutch) on TU Delft to be the last university to distance itself from X is the same one who set up the university’s Twitter account back in 2009. But a lot has changed since then, notes Rob Speekenbrink.
Cesspit
‘Twitter became mainstream, massive, changed its name and owner, and then turned into a cesspit. The sentiment has shifted so much that we have to ask ourselves whether universities, universities of applied sciences, and vocational schools should still be on X,’ writes Speekenbrink.
There are plenty of alternatives: Bluesky, Mastodon, LinkedIn, and Instagram. So far, TU Delft has not responded to the call: the university is posting almost on a daily basis on Elon Musk’s platform..
Update:
On LinkedIn, Carola de Vree, director of communications, wrote about this:
‘We are currently weighing that up with a so-called ‘moral deliberation’. We are then looking at all platforms and their conditions, so not just X. And we are also exploring interesting alternatives. By the way, we will keep the account on X and never delete it completely, to prevent others from taking over the TU Delft account.’
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