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X no longer marks the spot for the city of Montreal’s open-data portal.
The municipal team whose mission it is to make the City of Montreal’s data accessible to all has closed its account on the social media platform X, formerly Twitter, as of Friday.
“The evolution of the X platform in recent years no longer corresponds to the principles of access and transparency that are at the heart of our community,” the final message posted by Données ouvertes Montréal on the platform on Sept. 30 reads.
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“It is therefore with sadness that we have decided to close the account as of Oct. 4, 2024.”
The account @MTL_DO, which had about 3,000 followers as of Friday, invites the public to instead interact with the open-data team on its website — donnees.montreal.ca — or to contact the team by email. The public is able to comment on data posts on its website.
“The closure of the account on X was planned for a few weeks in order to prioritize exchanges directly on the open data website and the publication of news posts,” city spokesperson Gonzalo Nunez said in an email message.
“Through the site, we receive 10 to 15 requests per week from citizens. All messages are generally answered within 48 hours.”
The email said the closing of the @MTL_DO account has nothing to do with Mayor Valérie Plante’s decision in September to disable comments on her X account, citing insults and sexist comments.
In fact, Nunez notes that since Twitter became X in July 2023, “it is no longer possible to access the tweet without having an X account. Traffic has therefore decreased. In addition, we cannot display published messages and exchanges on an integrated module on our website.”
Nunez’s message also says that engagement on @MTL_DO ‘s X account “is very low — between zero and two reposts and likes per publication.”
Yet the final post by @MTL_DO brought an onslaught of comments — 282 of them as of Friday morning, many of which are negative or sarcastic and several of which contain an obscenity.
“Are you changing your name to ‘closed data’?” one tweet says.
“We don’t give a damn…,” says another.
“Open data that doesn’t listen to anyone. Good riddance,” another tweet says.
“The City of Montreal reiterates the importance of transparency, openness and sharing of open data,” Nunez said in his email.
“Moreover, we have adopted the Digital Data Charter in which we affirm our commitment to transparency, accountability and the efficiency of digital data management. Note that the city publishes over 365 open-data sets on the open-data site.”
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