The Toronto Police Service says it has begun disabling comments on its main X accounts because of “an increasing amount of potentially hateful and inappropriate commentary.”
A spokesperson for the Service told Global News in an email that the decision was made on Nov. 30 to “disable comments on our corporate X account.”
In a follow up email, police said comments were being disabled on both the main @TorontoPolice account and the @TPSOperations account, which provides live updates about ongoing incidents and investigations in the city.
“We put this process in place to ensure the platform is free from inappropriate content for our members and the hundreds of thousands of followers on our account,” the spokesperson said.
“Because the disabling of comments is a manual process, we are taking a phased-in approach and are endeavouring to make sure all comments are disabled on X.”
The decision has drawn criticism from some social media users who noticed the change.
As for Toronto police’s Facebook and Instagram accounts, the spokesperson said the Service will be moderating posts “to ensure our platforms are free from inappropriate content.”
“Once again, this is a phased approach.”