I’ll get straight to the point: The Xylom will no longer post on the social media site X (formerly Twitter.) 

We had taken a hiatus from Twitter in late 2022 to assess the digital landscape after the site’s sale to Elon Musk; we returned in Spring 2023 in response to Atlanta-area reader demand for environmental accountability journalism. Our award-winning “Cop City” reporting and ongoing MARTA coverage have filled important news gaps for concerned residents and decision-makers. The increasing toxicity of X, particularly xenophobic harassment directed at our staff and the disturbing content being platformed, makes it no longer worth devoting resources.

We're bringing in Aorui Pi to oversee The Xylom’s departure from X, develop strategies to reach new audiences, and report on the practice of Traditional Chinese Medicine. I am confident that Aorui will maintain our newsroom’s trusted, friendly, nuanced presence in a post-truth, exhausting, uncertain digital landscape.

Thankfully, our newsroom does not depend on the whims of social media algorithms — we are a nonprofit news outlet funded by you. In fact, from now until the end of the year, our “I'd rather pay $8/month to nonprofit news than to a billionaire” sustainer tier will be matched 36 times via NewsMatch! It's not too late to commit to our engagement journalism that gets the story right and makes a difference.