Behind the scenes I am beginning to challenge politicians and public sector organisations in the Liverpool City Region area to begin to move their social media messaging accounts to BlueSky and other social streams.

Let us suspend our rational minds and move into a hypothesis. This is that I stand in my front room and make the speech of my life. The arm movements, the jokes, the pathos, and facts are spot on. I then wonder who is listening to me and check the stats. Next to no-one! A few people would have seen me through the window and might have caught the odd word but the impact that I would have made would be nominal.

Yet when I asked the Council about social media usage, I got roughly the same sort of statistics from them. I know that hardly anyone is reading our BlueSky account and responding to it. That position will never change until we are proactive in promoting better alternatives. I am not asking the Council or anyone to leave Twitter, but I am asking that we promote the alternatives to a point where those streams will organically take off as Twitter did 15 years ago.

This is not just a matter of political nicety. I believe that unless we encourage people to move to another account we are aiding and abetting illegal activity. If you look at the Echo stories behind those arrested after the post Southport riots a substantial number of them used Twitter to pass on incorrect information and invitations to illegal activities in Liverpool and elsewhere.

So, I believe that we should all challenge our councils, especially those that we control by asking the following sorts of questions.

1. How many times has the Council promoted the existence of its BlueSky Account or similar Twitter alternatives on any of its other social media?
2. How many times has the Council promoted the use of alternative social media on its website and Facebook accounts?
3. Have any discussions been held with all public sector organisations about a joint approach to encouraging the use of other social media streams?
4. Has this matter been discussed with the Cabinet and Shadow Cabinet to ascertain their views.
5. Have you used devices such as Sky Tracker to look at who is on both Twitter and BlueSky to encourage them to follow the Council on BlueSky? As a matter of interest, I did this on Friday and of my 13,000+ Twitter accounts 2,300 were also on BlueSky and more than 400 have accepted my invitation to join me on there. This is a remarkably high proportion of my active Twitter followers. Many of them have begun to interact with me on BlueSky.

But it is not only our Councils that need challenging. Does the LGA have a progressive policy of this matter or is it keeping its fingers crossed and hoping for the best? Is our Party both in its own right and in the use of media by its councillors, branches and individuals encouraging a movement to more reasonable and accurate media sources.

Liverpool City Council and every other Council, organisation and Party that refuses to take action is now guilty of associating with a Company whose Leader is clearly a Nazi sympathiser. It is a media channel which has largely abandoned all controls over content and has algorithms which ensure material which is the antithesis of the beliefs of the council flourishes. I don’t want to go public on this issue although I am prepared to post May 14th when I step down as Lord Mayor. The best way forward is for quiet but positive action to be taken across our area. As the incoming head of Comms for the LCR no-one will be in a better position that you to promote such movement.

This position is unsustainable, and action must be taken to deal with it.

* Cllr Richard Kemp CBE is Lord Mayor of Liverpool for 2024-2025.