TU Delft, Last Dutch University on X, Goes Silent

The last TU Delft post on X dates back to 18 March 2025. From now on, TU Delft’s 77,300 followers will have to find information elsewhere, such as on LinkedIn or Instagram.

On 28 February, Rob Speekenbrink, who set up TU Delft’s Twitter account in 2009, called on TU Delft’s Communications Department on LinkedIn to distance itself from the platform. He referred to a study showing that all other Dutch universities had already stopped using X.

Universities cited various reasons for leaving the platform, including that, since Elon Musk’s takeover and its rebranding as X, it no longer aligned with their core values. They also pointed to decreased engagement with followers, alongside a rise in disinformation, hate speech, and threats.

Ethical Review

TU Delft had already been considering its presence on X before Speekenbrink’s call, as it now turns out. Two weeks earlier, on 14 February, an ethical review was done regarding TU Delft’s activities on X, says Communications Department representative Roy Meijer. Nine communications staff members participated, along with ethicist Ibo van de Poel and an external moderator.

‘We originally intended to discuss both X and Meta’, Meijer explained in an email, ‘but that would have been too much for a single afternoon, so we limited it to X. We mapped out the various stakeholders and weighed up the arguments for staying versus leaving.’

The conclusion was that the negative associations with both the platform and its owner, Elon Musk, outweighed the benefits of reaching over 70,000 people. ‘We now want to see what the impact of going silent will be’, Meijer wrote.

Slow Process

Why did it take more than a month after this review for the decision to be communicated internally on 18 March, and yet another week before it was put into effect?

That was down to TU Delft’s meeting culture, Meijer explained. After the review, a formal recommendation had to be drafted and then approved. ‘Once the decision was made, we also had to organise the logistics properly – informing and coordinating with various parties such as the Executive Board, faculties, and other colleagues to ensure we all stopped at the same time.’ In addition, all X logos had to be removed from TU Delft web pages.

Meijer emphasised that the decision to leave X was independent of Speekenbrink’s LinkedIn post. In response to Speekenbrink’s post at the time, Communications Director Carola de Vree had stated that an ethical review was underway and that TU Delft would keep its X account to prevent others from taking it over.

‘Seems like a good strategy to keep the account,’ Speekenbrink replied. ‘Just as it’s a good idea to claim TU Delft as a brand name on all platforms, regardless of whether you use them.’

The Communications Department now plans to assess TU Delft’s presence in Meta and other platforms in a similar way.