Activity on X falling, yet are universities exiting it?

Whether universities should stay on X or leave entirely is the subject of much debate across the university sector. Recently, Reuters reported “UK universities join retreat from Elon Musk’s X, citing misinformation on platform”, and Research Professional News found “more than 60 German universities and research institutions [had left] X”.

Yet the data behind these stories reveal a more uncertain picture, as universities scale back and redirect their activities rather than exit the platform.

In 2024, I started tracking how different research organisations were using social media. You can see the data I collected here, as well as a blogpost I wrote discussing some initial observations.

Picking up where I left off, I looked at 141 university profiles in the United Kingdom to capture a snapshot of the current environment and how universities had adapted their social media strategies in the following months. You can find a snapshot of this data at the time of writing here.

X’s uncertain future

It will not come as a surprise that all of these institutions had active Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn profiles. The trio of popular platforms share information differently and cover different demographics, providing access to a variety of audiences. However, as with X, there is no guarantee they will remain rewarding and stable platforms.

Of the 141 universities, only five had announced they had quit X, with a further eight not having posted in 2025, strongly indicating they had, to all intents and purposes, left. For a casual visitor, this may give the impression the platform has been forgotten, rather than exited in an informative professional manner.

Some had pinned posts highlighting they are active on other channels, especially Bluesky, perhaps suggesting they were preparing to leave. While some universities, for instance the University of Leeds, only recently made their formal announcement they were leaving X, London Metropolitan University and Plymouth Marjon University both decisively left shortly before the presidential election in November.

Most institutions have retained the old Twitter bird or the newer X logo on their homepage. There were a few examples, such as the University of Liverpool and Richmond American University London, who have embedded a Bluesky logo on their homepage.

No one appears to have gone so far as to add a Threads logo onto their institutional website. A few, such as the University of Worcester and York St John University, have pulled X logos from their homepage.

Some universities did not have any social media icons on their homepage – perhaps due to institutions using social media as a means to bring visitors to their website and not take them away via social media.

It seems unlikely that any notable academic institution will select the nuclear option and press the delete button on their X account. This is for a number of reasons: current and potential students remain on X and use it to contact their institution.

X is still a means to alert students and update them of any critical issues relating to services and the campus. It provides intelligence as to any notable coverage relating to the institution that may be positive or a threat to its reputation. Finally, surrendering their X handle leaves the door open for bad actors to use it.

Bluesky has emerged as the latest alternative platform to X, with 75 of the 141 institutions having set up an account, and, of that, 44 have posted in 2025.

Other alternatives, notably Mastodon, have failed to gain traction. Only two out of 11 university Mastodon accounts were live, although both (The University of Exeter and UCL, which has 33,000 followers) appear to be redirects to Mastodon from well-followed Threads accounts.

The rushed launch of Threads itself saw millions move to the platform, with dozens of universities setting up their own account. Given that it was tied to Instagram this made sense. However, since its launch in July 2023, just under half of the 108 accounts have posted in 2025, with many ceasing activity not long after appearing online.

Taking institutional social media accounts seriously

One of the most notable things from looking at the many social media accounts that were set up as a result of the last two years is how incomplete they are. Many have no information beyond the institution’s name and crest; some use abbreviations with no explanation.

This begs the question, how do we know they are authentic? In one case I found a student at the University of Hull had taken a potential Hull handle and posted once on Bluesky encouraging their institution to join the platform (Hull is now officially on Bluesky).

There are several with no links to the institution and no posts stating that it is a holding account. There were institutional Threads and Bluesky accounts with a single, awkwardly ironic post by the comms teams, nervously trying their hand on this new platform.

Arguably, it is better not to be on the platform at all than to have a single clumsy post tied to an account that does not look authentic or professional. If institutions have defunct accounts, at the very least they should pin a graphic and text which signposts visitors to platforms where there is activity.

Fragmenting social media

Academic activity on X continues to fall (as shown by recent Altmetric.com data) and Bluesky continues to eat into X’s share of social media communications that are linked to published research, with over 1.5m Bluesky posts captured at the time of writing.

While it appears that many institutions have decided not to invest in Threads, or have ceased using it, it begs questions about the future of other Meta platforms and academia.

Universities are clearly engaging on X less, with the University of Worcester a good example, with a solitary tweet about UCAS in early January and no X logo on their website.

A critical shift may take place later this year, as UK universities respond to a mounting campaign against academia in the USA. Another factor may be the need to promote the current National Student Survey that runs until April, and any final opportunities to attract future students.

Until then, it is advisable for all university communication teams to capture the handles for any notable social media platforms they do not already exist on. And for those already there but not active, to ensure their profiles are complete, with links and content that signpost visitors to active online presences.

This is where a tool such as Linktree can be useful, along with the formal university website address to collate all of those links in one place.

Andy Tattersall is an information specialist at the School of Health and Related Research (ScHARR) and writes, teaches and gives talks about digital academia, technology, scholarly communications, open research, web and information science, apps, altmetrics, and social media. In particular, their applications for research, teaching, learning, knowledge management and collaboration. Andy received a Senate Award from the University of Sheffield for his pioneering work on MOOCs in 2013 and is a senior fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

He is also chair for the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals – Multimedia and Information Technology Committee. Andy was listed as one of Jisc’s Top Ten Social Media Superstars for 2017 in Higher Education. He has edited a book on altmetrics for Facet Publishing, which is aimed at researchers and librarians. He tweets @Andy_Tattersall and his ORCID ID is 0000-0002-2842-9576.

Tattersall is keen to point out that the data he has compiled is by no means complete, and there may be accounts he has missed, so he is encouraging academics and professionals to contribute to the spreadsheet using this form. He has also created a starter pack of universities on Bluesky for those currently weighing up their options on the platform.

This article was first published on the LSE Impact of Social Science blog. It gives the views and opinions of the author and does not reflect the views and opinions of the Impact of Social Science blog (the blog), nor of the London School of Economics and Political Science.

This article is a commentary. Commentary articles are the opinion of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of University World News.