this post was submitted on 31 Mar 2026
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568
After more than 15 years on the platform formerly known as Twitter, Cambridge is leaving X (www.bostonglobe.com)
submitted 3 weeks ago by ardi60@reddthat.com to c/technology@lemmy.world
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[–] cabbage@piefed.social 162 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (4 children)

“I don’t want residents to think we’re giving a stamp of approval to Instagram and Facebook and Snapchat and all their oligarch owners,” said City Councilor Jivan Sobrinho-Wheeler at Monday’s meeting. “There’s no ethical social media companies under capitalism,” he said. “We can try to use the ones that are the least bad and reach the most Cambridge residents.”

Somebody tell this guy about Mastodon.

Also worth noting that this article is about the city of Cambridge, Massachusetts, not Cambridge, England nor the University of Cambridge. They still apparently thrive in the gutter.

[–] morto@piefed.social 46 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

Judging by the quote, they're likely going to bluesky. They will say that mastodon has a too restricted reach. It's like a pattern. Every time I see someone coming with that "there's no ethical [thing] under capitalism", instead of promoting the anticapitalist things or the most ethical choices, they use the phrase to justify using another capitalist thing.

[–] baatliwala@lemmy.world 28 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

Idk why they can't use both, any big organisation has a social media team managing multiple handles

[–] morto@piefed.social 7 points 3 weeks ago

Institutions don't want to or simply don't care. Anything else said is just an excuse to give a good-looking response

[–] ripcord@lemmy.world 4 points 3 weeks ago

There's also various services for posting to multiple places

[–] Specter@piefed.social 10 points 3 weeks ago

Right.

“We hate capitalist oligarchs which is why we are moving to another oligarch-owned platform.”

It’s all so tiresome.

[–] grue@lemmy.world 19 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Somebody tell this guy about Mastodon.

The phone number for his executive assistant is 617-349-4280.

https://www.cambridgema.gov/Departments/citycouncil/members/jivansobrinhowheeler

[–] Stormy@thelemmy.club -3 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

You found the number, why don't you call?

[–] grue@lemmy.world 23 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

If I admitted to calling, I would be confirming that the phone number the guy's office received a call from was linked to this Lemmy account.

As it is, who knows who might have called? The call (or ideally, the calls, plural) could've come from any number of people who read that message.

[–] Stormy@thelemmy.club 15 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

I got you.

I called earlier.

It was me.

(Wink)

[–] FauxLiving@lemmy.world 5 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (1 children)

I called too, he's a public official and we are the public... nobody should be afraid of calling to provide feedback.

It would be trivial for them to add another site, like Mastodon, to the software the keeps their socials in sync. They just need to hear about it and this guy doesn't strike me as the 'hanging out in the Fediverse' type.

If you want his office to know, you gotta tell them yourself. Don't assume someone else will do it. You, yes you the person reading this from the other side of the 4th wall, remember the saying from Fortnite "Be the change you want to see in the world."

[–] Stormy@thelemmy.club 1 points 3 weeks ago

remember the saying from Fortnite "Be the change you want to see in the world."

That was Oprah

[–] jefferyjefferson@lemmy.org 2 points 3 weeks ago

These people are genuinely too stupid to choose Mastodon.

[–] arcine@jlai.lu 1 points 2 weeks ago

Some people have trouble conceiving of social media that is not ran by a company.

[–] spectrums_coherence@piefed.social 51 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (1 children)

BTW, there is a very strong Boston/Cambridge/Somerville community on mastodon, there is a entire instance for it: https://better.boston/explore

Mayor Wu is on there @wutrain@better.boston but not posting much these days.

There are also many people on other instances, like transport or OSS instance, as many prominent OSS contributor lives in that area.

[–] wjs018@piefed.social 5 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Thanks for pointing this out. I am not that active on masto, but I am from the Boston area, so this might be the kick I need to check out that side of the fediverse. I lived in Somerville for 10 years before more recently moving to the burbs. I wouldn't want to live anywhere else in this country these days.

[–] spectrums_coherence@piefed.social 4 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

Then this post should interest you: https://social.growyourown.services/@FediFollows/112419076551165888 :)

And my absolute favorite is @frenchtoast@better.boston

[–] speedythefirst@lemmy.zip 13 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (1 children)

Good. I'm curious to see where they land. Most likely Bluesky, but I've heard of some local governments moving to Fediverse instances, whether they're Mastodon or local.

[–] porcoesphino@mander.xyz 6 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

Oh? Any chance you can point to something about these local governments hosting fediverse instances? I just did a quick search but didn't see anything

[–] livligkinkajou@slrpnk.net 20 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (1 children)

From the top of my head, there are:

City of Amsterdam https://social.amsterdam.nl/
Baden-Württemberg https://xn--baw-joa.social/
Netherlands https://social.overheid.nl/
Germany https://social.bund.de/
France https://social.numerique.gouv.fr/
EU Commission https://ec.social-network.europa.eu/

Switzerland had a pilot project, but I don't know what happened to it

I'm pretty sure there are more local governments with their own instances or plans to do it , specially after all the digital sovereignty discourse got some boost to it

[–] spectrums_coherence@piefed.social 6 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

There are several non-profit had their own instance, like ACM. I recall Mozilla used to do, but I am not sure if they still does.

[–] teyrnon@sh.itjust.works 4 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

How expensive is it to have your own instance?

[–] spectrums_coherence@piefed.social 8 points 3 weeks ago

I don't think it is terribly expensive, a lot of (somewhat large) domain specific academic instances are maintained by grad students with donation from academics. As far as I know, many of them are in good financial standing.

[–] speedythefirst@lemmy.zip 3 points 3 weeks ago

I could have sworn I watched a video by FediHost about that, but I either can't find it or it never existed in the first place. I have seen some places move to Mastodon, so I edited my initial comment to be more accurate to my current info. Sorry!

[–] Gamechanger@slrpnk.net 12 points 3 weeks ago

Better late than never! But man, are they late...

[–] Etterra@discuss.online 9 points 3 weeks ago

No it's still known as Twitter, despite changing it's name to X.

[–] LodeMike@lemmy.today 6 points 3 weeks ago

It's been 2 years and we still recognize [the name] Twitter better than X

[–] maplesaga@lemmy.world 3 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

Its interesting to see the same people calling for governmental social media censorship also calling for Trump to stop lying to them. Do they realize he is part of the government, or that he will be the one to control it?

[–] MedicPigBabySaver@lemmy.world 2 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Paywall

[–] cabbage@piefed.social 3 points 3 weeks ago

If you have a reading mode in your browser it works well on that site. :)

[–] teyrnon@sh.itjust.works 2 points 3 weeks ago

Cambridge is actually pretty cool in some ways. They put out a lot of research on small farming, ways for people to get into the business. Maple syrup, mushrooms, crops.

They also do the israel thing so they aren't perfect.

[–] Jhex@lemmy.world 1 points 3 weeks ago

Absolutely ridiculous this is not an article from a few years back...