Victoria’s Department of Families, Fairness and Housing has quit X, marking the start of an expected mass departure from the Elon Musk-owned social media platform.

Last week, DFFH posted a snarky message on X – formerly Twitter – announcing the agency would be leaving the website in favour of rival platforms.

“Hey @x…. It’s not you, but it IS you,” wrote DFFH.

“We’re leaving X (Twitter). It’s time to take the conversation elsewhere.”

Though DFFH’s final post doles out a fair dose of humour – writing that its “break up” with X is “overdue” alongside some broken heart emojis – the department’s reasons for quitting are contrastingly bleak.

In a statement given to The Guardian, the agency suggests a lack of safety and productive community engagement drove its decision to ditch the platform.

“We’re working to create a more inclusive Victoria,” it said.

“To do that work we want to speak with our community on platforms where we can reach our audiences safely and productively.”

Since Elon Musk took over Twitter in late 2022, the billionaire entrepreneur has rebranded the platform both in name and product, with Musk reinstating banned accounts, relaxing content moderation rules, and enabling more hateful content to flourish on X in the name of “free speech”.

After observing an uptick in online abuse during 2023, Australia’s eSafety Commissioner openly lambasted the platform and issued a legal notice seeking information on X’s anti-hate measures, before later fining the company $610,500 for failing to cooperate with a probe into its anti-child abuse practices.

DFFH oversees housing, disability, child protection, family violence and LGBTIQA+ equality, and has predictably seen droves of contentious responses to its posts since Musk’s takeover, most notably on its content centring on gender diversity and LGBTIQA+ communities.

The most popular comment on DFFH’s final post suggests the department is leaving X because it can’t push “propaganda” on the platform – that “propaganda” likely referring to LGBTIQA+ recognition.

“What you’re actually saying is that it’s not ‘safe’ for you to push your propaganda on X where you can’t curate the comments section like you do on Facebook, therefore you’re leaving,” wrote user QBCCIntegrity.

United Australia Party senator Ralph Babet similarly backed X and prescribed ulterior-motives for the agency’s departure, commenting “freedom of speech” and “being held to account” isn’t something that “authoritarians” like.

DFFH has stood silent in the face of the backlash to its final post, but remains active on platforms such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram.

“We’re investing in conversation on more suitable platforms,” DFFH said.

More agencies expected to leave

In addition to DFFH dumping X, Victoria’s Department of Jobs Skills, Industry and Regions has outright locked its X account and reportedly confirmed it will soon close it in full.

“We regularly review our communication channels to ensure we’re speaking to Victorians on their preferred channels – our audience’s engagement with the X – formerly Twitter – account has declined, so we are moving towards closing this account,” a spokesperson told The Guardian.

The Guardian further reports all state governments are assessing whether they should remain on X, with only the Department of Health and Department of Transport accounts expected to remain, given they use the platform to provide regular updates on crucial public transport and health information.

Outside of government, the ABC last year discontinued a significant number of its X accounts citing “toxic interactions” and concerns over X reducing its trust and safety teams, and last week, Australian LGBTIQA+ community radio station JOY also opted to leave after 15 years on the platform.

Furthermore, monitoring company Sensor Tower recently reported a 15 per cent decline in global daily active users of X’s mobile app between February 2023 and February 2024.

Musk himself seems to have acknowledged the decline after he announced Thursday that free Premium features will be given as an incentive for X accounts with over 2,500 verified subscriber-followers.

“The aspiration of this platform is to be by far the best source of truth on Earth,” Musk posted.

“Nothing will ever be perfect, but we shall strive to be less wrong every day.”