{"id":53631,"date":"2025-04-08T18:30:00","date_gmt":"2025-04-08T21:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thelaker.ca\/?p=53631"},"modified":"2025-04-08T18:30:00","modified_gmt":"2025-04-08T21:30:00","slug":"gillis-supportive-of-hrms-decision-to-stop-posting-on-x","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/?p=53631","title":{"rendered":"Gillis supportive of HRM&#8217;s decision to stop posting on X"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>[adrotate banner=&#8221;235&#8243;]<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>[adrotate banner=&#8221;126&#8243;]<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>BEAVER BANK\/FALL RIVER:<\/strong> The councillor for Lower Sackville -Beaver Bank is supportive of HRM\u2019s decision to move away from the X\/Twitter social media platform as a way to communicate with residents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Billy Gillis said his mind was changed on whether HRM should remove X as a social media platform upon learning information about the municipality\u2019s account.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The removal of X\/Twitter as a platform for HRM to relay information has been a contentious topic. It came up at a vote on Tuesday\u2019s regional council and passed with all but Councillor David Hendsbee voting for the motion, made by Councillor Laura White. The motion in February had asked for a staff report.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Gillis had initially been against HRM removing the platform when the motion was first introduced as it would restrict some residents that only use X from receiving information from the municipality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI ultimately voted in favor of removing the platform as there was declining engagement and HRM Communications had already begun taking steps of getting off the platform, before the original motion was introduced,\u201d Gillis told The Laker News on Tuesday evening<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>ADVERTISEMENT:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>[adrotate banner=&#8221;31&#8243;]<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>[adrotate banner=&#8221;148&#8243;]<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Gillis, who uses X\/Twitter to regularly post and share information, said he plans to continue that with his councillor account.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI will still be using my HRM Councilor account, as I still have residents in my district that strictly use X,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI want them to&nbsp;be able to interact with their councilor.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He said the removal of X\/Twitter only affects the main HRM government accounts and not business units such as Halifax Regional Police and Halifax Regional Fire.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThey, as well as Halifax Water, will continue to use X to communicate with residents for the time being,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>VIDEO: <em>Discussion on the removal of X during council. Video clipped by Dagley Media.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Halifax Regional Council - Removal of X as a Social Media Platform for HRM (April 8, 2025)\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/hUxT_wdBFvQ?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>ADVERTISEMENT:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>[adrotate banner=&#8221;127&#8243;]<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>[adrotate group=&#8221;6&#8243;]<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>[adrotate banner=&#8221;192&#8243;]<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He said HRM is currently taking steps to transition to Blue Sky while limiting posting on X, trying to ensure a smooth transition in the coming months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Gillis said there have been some Councilors in other districts, that had gotten feedback from their residents to leave the platform.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He has not received any from his District.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWhile I completely disagree with the owner of the X\/Twitter platform, his views and his interference in democracy in both Canada and the U.S.,\u201d said Gillis, \u201cthere has been a movement globally by government and corporations to transition away from the X platform.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Laker News did reach out to Councillor Cathy Deagle Gammon as well for comment but had not heard back by time we posted this story. We will update this story with her comments if we receive them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>[adrotate banner=&#8221;105&#8243;]<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>[adrotate banner=&#8221;237&#8243;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[adrotate banner=&#8221;235&#8243;] [adrotate banner=&#8221;126&#8243;] BEAVER BANK\/FALL RIVER: The councillor for Lower Sackville -Beaver Bank is supportive of HRM\u2019s decision to move away from the X\/Twitter social media platform as a way to communicate with residents. Billy Gillis said his mind was changed on whether HRM should remove X as a social media platform upon learning [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":50947,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,957],"tags":[10,8150,8151,8152,5928,8153,121,51,13,8154,7745,7746],"class_list":["post-53631","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-news","tag-beaver-bank","tag-councillor-billy-gillis","tag-councillor-laura-white","tag-elon-musk","tag-hlaifax","tag-hrfe","tag-hrm","tag-hrp","tag-lower-sackville","tag-social-emdia","tag-twitter","tag-x"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53631","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=53631"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53631\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/50947"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=53631"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=53631"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=53631"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}