Politics

Attention Wu Train passengers: Mayor Wu is stepping back from her personal Twitter account

“I’ve experienced this platform becoming more and more toxic over the last year, and it’s a direction that makes it a less productive use of my personal time to reach constituents about local issues."

Mayor Michelle Wu, giving her first speech at the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce in September. Jonathan Wiggs/Globe Staff

By Christopher Gavin

January 13, 2023

Mayor Michelle Wu is no longer driving the Wu Train — or at least on Twitter.

The mayor, who has built her millennial political personality over social media, has taken a step back from the frequent posts on her 150,000-plus follower-strong Twitter account, @wutrain, which she personally manages.

Wu told CommonWealth on Wednesday she has lately found it harder to use the platform for information sharing and civil dialogue on issues with constituents.

“I’ve experienced this platform becoming more and more toxic over the last year, and it’s a direction that makes it a less productive use of my personal time to reach constituents about local issues,” she said.

Wu has not posted any original tweets on the account in nearly a month. She has only retweeted two messages.

The mayor said she plans to stay off Twitter for the time being, though her communications staff is continuing to post official city messages on her mayoral account, @MayorWu.

As Twitter experienced changes since Elon Musk bought the company late last year, the platform was often criticized for lowering its standards for misinformation, among other issues.

Wu said her decision is more about her feelings on Twitter’s broader direction, even before Musk took over.

“There’s been a crowding out of many voices and forms of debate, with conspiracy theories or many accounts, most often anonymous, posting in bad faith about conspiracy theories or spreading misinformation,” she told CommonWealth.

Wu has also been subject to online and in-person harassment throughout her first term, particularly around the COVID-19 vaccine mandate she put in place for city workers.

The mayor said that issue was not the only one that informed her decision to take a break from Twitter.

“It’s less about a particular topic or issue and more the general difficulty to cut through so much misinformation and bad-faith attempts to distract and harass,” she said.

To be clear, Wu said she has no issues with criticism of her leadership and tough debates, nor is she hiding from it, according to the outlet.

“I think it’s a really important goal that city government and our elected representatives should be looking to create those spaces for disagreement and feedback and accountability,” she said. “There’s a distinction between bad faith attempts to harass and robust, healthy debate.”

And Wu is also not closing the door on Twitter.

“I’m open to seeing how things shift,” she said of the changing nature of social media, according to CommonWealth. “I think we’re in a moment of volatility in our national political system and that has lots of ripple effects across all parts of our daily life.”