Federal Department Leaves X, Citing Need to Protect Employees From Hateful Commentary

A federal department officially has closed its accounts on the X social media platform, citing concerns that comments from users were causing mental distress among employees.Women and Gender Equality Canada had kept its accounts dormant since March 2025, following an International Women’s Day post that drew a wave of responses, before formally closing them in late May 2026.Deputy Minister Frances McRae wrote a memo to Minister of Women and Gender Equality (WAGE) Rechie Valdez to explain the move, according to an access-to-information request obtained by Blacklock’s Reporter.“As discussed with your office, WAGE posts to the X channel have attracted a significant volume of comments consisting of hate directed towards women and 2SLGBTAI+ people, and to the department more generally,” McRae wrote in the May 25 memo.McRae added the comments have caused “significant mental strains” for departmental employees tasked with managing the social media accounts.In explaining her decision, the deputy minister noted Canada Labour Code provisions around the duty of the employer on occupational health and safety to prevent psychological injuries.“Repeated exposure to large volumes of hateful commentary presents a credible risk to psychological safety and well-being,” McRae wrote.The department’s post for International Women’s Day in March 2025 attracted a “particularly high volume of hateful comments,” McRae said, adding that posting on X then ceased.The Epoch Times was not able to retrieve the post from March 2025 due to the deletion of WAGE accounts and the absence of snapshots in the Internet Archive.The department has maintained its social media accounts on other platforms such as Instagram, where the 2025 Women’s Day post shows various individuals smiling.Instagram post for International Women’s Day 2025 from Women and Gender Equality Canada. Instagram/Screenshot via The Epoch TimesWAGE’s Instagram account includes posts supporting events like “Pride Season” and criticizes concepts such as the “manosphere.” Comments are blocked or limited on the account.X is owned by tech billionaire Elon Musk, who bought the platform formerly known as Twitter in 2022 with the stated goal of promoting greater freedom of expression.The company says it has rules to prevent violence and harassment on the platform. “Our rules are to ensure all people can participate in the public conversation freely and safely,” it says.“You may not attack other people on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin, caste, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, religious affiliation, age, disability, or serious disease.”The Epoch Times reached out to X for comment but didn’t immediately hear back.Social Media StrategyMcRae’s memo says that X is a popular platform but not as effective to reach the department’s intended audience. “As you may be aware, many WAGE followers and stakeholders have already left the X platform,” she said.The department had four accounts on X, with two of them focused on “2SLGBTQI+ communities,” according to the memo.McRae told Valdez that mitigation efforts had been made over the past two years to address hateful comments. This included limiting tagging to mutual followers, disabling comments when discussions “become harmful or violate terms,” collaborating with the Privy Council Office (PCO) on “shared strategies,” and “supporting the social media team’s mental health and wellness through management engagement.”The decision to delete the department’s X accounts came after consulting with PCO and the Treasury Board.“I have concluded that the costs to the department of continuing to engage on the X platform outweigh the benefits,” McRae said.The deputy minister said she decided not to make a final post on X to announce the decision to leave the platform, saying it would likely generate more hateful comments needing to be addressed by the social media team.The Epoch Times reached out to Valdez’s office for comment but didn’t immediately hear back.Valdez has maintained her X account, which currently has 11,300 followers.Other top bureaucrats have cited social media commentary as a source of concern. Then-Deputy Immigration Minister Harpreet Kochhar wrote to the House of Commons immigration committee in late 2025 to raise concerns about the safety of officials who testify before parliamentarians.Kochhar, who has since been appointed as president of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, said public servants have faced harassment due to “decontextualized” clips from committee meetings being posted on social media by MPs.“Without a change in approach, I am concerned that threats and intimidation from the public will persist, increasing the risk to public servants who appear before committees,” he said.Tory MP Michelle Rempel Garner called Kochhar’s letter an attempt at “censorship.”