The UK’s culture and media department will stop using X because the site “now favours abuse and misinformation over meaningful debate”, Lisa Nandy has announced.
The culture secretary’s department is the UK’s second to quit the Elon Musk-owned platform over increasing concerns about the way it highlights and prioritises often inaccurate far-right and racist content and is used to incite violence and division.
Two weeks ago the Guardian revealed that Richard Hermer, the attorney general for England and Wales, had told his office to no longer post on X, a decision prompted in part by the platform’s role in stoking disorder in Southampton and Belfast earlier in June.
In a statement on her own X account, Nandy said: “I’ve decided to leave this platform and my department will too. A platform originally designed for free speech and expression now favours abuse and misinformation over meaningful debate. It isn’t healthy for our democracy or our communities and I don’t want to support it.”
People who wanted to interact with her via social media could do so via Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn, Nandy added.
Her decision is all the more significant given the DCMS is responsible for media regulation, even if enforcement against X has so far been left to Ofcom, the media watchdog.
It could also be a temporary measure for the department given that Andy Burnham will take over as prime minister within weeks, and a new culture secretary may take a different view.
But it is a symbolically important moment and a sign opinion is gradually moving from the view that ministers and their departments should remain on X to get their messaging across, despite the ubiquitous racism and far-right content and regular calls for the UK government to be deposed, a view often endorsed by Musk.
In September last year, Musk linked his desire for a “change of government” in the UK with violent uprising as he addressed a far-right march in London via video link.
Musk said: “This is a message to the reasonable centre, the people who ordinarily wouldn’t get involved in politics, who just want to live their lives. They don’t want that, they’re quiet, they just go about their business.
“My message is to them: if this continues, that violence is going to come to you, you will have no choice. You’re in a fundamental situation here. Whether you choose violence or not, violence is coming to you. You either fight back or you die, that’s the truth, I think.”
There was renewed focus on X amid widespread violence in Southampton from people who said they were protesting about Henry Nowak, who was handcuffed as he lay dying from a stab wound after his killer called police and falsely claimed to have been the victim of a racist assault.
Six days later, more violence erupted in Belfast when far-right activists called for demonstrations in response to a stabbing attack for which a 30-year-old refugee from Sudan was charged with attempted murder.
In both cases, far-right agitators, often endorsed by Musk, called for protests and a violent response to the initial incidents.
Earlier this year, Keir Starmer threatened X with being blocked in the UK if it did not take action over a mass of sexualised images of women and children produced by its Grok AI tool, with X subsequently acting.
But after the Belfast riots, No 10 said any action would be left to Ofcom, the media regulator.
