Jackafal Is Leaving X (Formerly Known As Twitter)

Jackafal has decided to leave the social media platform X (formerly known as Twitter). Our founder Madelaine Jones has issued the following statement:

”Jackafal is quitting Twitter, or X as it's otherwise known. And as a small business owner, I'm going to talk you through why I've come to that decision.

I'm the founder of a small learning design company that focuses on inclusion, whether that's making learning materials more inclusive, or having discussions around DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) directly with different people. Because of that, I've always been passionate about staying on social media platforms as long as possible, even if you don't necessarily agree with the demographic and the general opinion that's being had, because I think being able to have conversations with people who have differences of opinion is a really important step in promoting inclusion and being able to open doors that previously weren't opened.

But the current changes that have been happening with Twitter/X in the last couple of years have reached a point where I don't feel comfortable being able to use that platform as a small business owner and inherently kind of endorsing it by being part of that. In my experience and the experience of people around me, there's been a really prevalent rise in hate speech and of the growing of communities who are not open to discussion and dialogue, but are really just there to spread hate. Some of that's to do with the current political climate in a lot of places, but some of it's also to do with the management of the platform and the views around free speech of the people who are running it.

As a result, I've reached the point where I don't feel comfortable having the Jackafal brand on X anymore. I don't feel like it's possible for us to have that open dialogue and to be able to have those conversations with people, even if they do have different viewpoints, because the wall of hatred is just too strong. So as much as it pains me to say this, we're going to be removing ourselves from the platform. But I think it's really important for organisations to be transparent and to explain their decisions when it comes to things like this.

Discussions around free speech are always going to be difficult to balance because ultimately not everyone can speak freely while some people are being discriminated against by said free speech. So there's a bit of a paradox there, and I'm going to talk about that more in other videos. But all I can say is, from my own experience and from seeing the people around me who are being affected by this, it's reached a point where I just can't support this anymore as my organisation and as me personally. And that's why we've chosen to withdraw.

If you're sad that you're not going to be able to hear from us on Twitter or X because you follow us, we do still have plenty of other social media that you can follow, including our YouTube channel, which you can subscribe to, our TikTok, our Instagram, our LinkedIn, and we also have a mailing list that you can join either if you contact us directly or if you visit our website and sign up.”