About xodus
The term Xodus is often used to refer to the movement of people away from X in the wake of Elon Musk’s takeover. This website is named after that phrase, but rather than a sole focus on the X platform, is about the overall movement away from what we call toxic lock-in social media – social media which is advertising-profit-driven, lock-in, and built on black box algorithms controlled by single organisations.
Recognising the uses and value of social media as a form of communication, this website promotes moves to alternative social media, or what is becoming known as the Open Social Web; explaining the reasons “why” to make the move, and providing links, guidance and tips to individuals and organisations on “how”.
Xodus.online draws from and links to a range of country campaigns:
- EU: The petition Ban X in EU was launched by Italian activists, while Leave X is an open letter for European politicians to abandon X.
- France: The HelloQuitX campaign was founded by the Ligue des droits de l’Homme, La Quadrature du net, SNJ-CGT, Nothing 2 Hide, On est prêt and Au Poste, and has now formed an organisation EscapeX. It has created a movement to move from X to Bluesky and Mastodon in France (according to the numbers of Mastodon, the CEO of X in France, the analysis France / USA by L’express), by prompting many French mainstream media outlets, politicians and cities to leave X. Xodus.online was developed in collaboration with EscapeX and draws extensively from content compiled by EscapeX. French citizens have also established petitions on the National Assembly petition platform:
- Spain: The Vámonos Juntas campaign was launched by more than 120 organisations.
- Germany:
- “Digital Independence Day” launched in Germany in December 2025, with website di.day. It is a collaborative project of many organizations, coordinated by Save Social, and includes regular in-person meetups throughout Germany.
- savesocial.eu/en/ movement also runs campaigns and petitions focused on Germany:
- Save Social Networks as a Democratic Force ! – petition – weact.campact.de/petitions/save-social-soziale-netzwerke-als-demokratische-kraft-retten
- No Power for Oligarchs: Federal Government Must Finally Get Off X ! – petition –weact.campact.de/petitions/keine-macht-fur-oligarchen-bundesregierung-endlich-runter-von-x
- Action Alliance for New Social Media (Aktionsbündnis neue soziale Medien) are on Mastodon here: bewegung.social/@neuSoM and are working to support universities to transform their use of social media digitalcourage.de article: IT experts offer universities help with the use of truly social media. They also have a petition which is now closed/submitted: Calling on universities and other higher education institutions in Germany to shut down their accounts on X and develop a presence on Mastodon and other Fediverse servers
- more than 120 universities and research institutes announced their SciXit, or withdrawal from X, with support from Campact, an organisation in which more than 3.5 million people are committed to progressive politics in defence of democracy.
- “Progressive Lore” have a petition on the WeAct petition platform, to “Stop Musk, shut down X”
- Digital Courage publish a series of articles on this topic (in German):
- Ireland: Uplift have been active on the topic of Digital Harms. This petition is focused on Irish institutions: Irish Institutions: Take X icons off websites and emails and replace with mastodon icons
- Netherlands: Inspired by Germany’s #DiDay (“digital independence day”) and the Danish #DanmarkSkifter, the Netherlands now has #DoeiDag (“bye day”), every first Sunday of the month – to say goodbye to big tech and to try open alternatives – doeidag.nl
There are numerous individuals and organisations helping to spread the word about alternative social media, the Open Social Web, and the Fediverse, which this website draws from and links to. The Fediverse does not have a marketing department. The way word spreads about the Fediverse is through people who believe in it and use it, telling others about it, and indicating their Fediverse presence on websites, emails and printed materials.
Xodus.online is primarily a website for now, supporting this overall movement. Xodus.online is developed in collaboration with EscapeX.
The cartoons and logo for this site were created by Steph Bravo-Semilla www.cartoonmovement.com/cartoonist/21963.
Inspired to volunteer to help grow this movement and contribute to this website? Please send an email if you would like to join the Xodus.online volunteer team !