Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy has dramatically abandoned Elon Musk’s X platform, posting what appears to be her final message on the site: “It isn’t healthy for our democracy or our communities and I don’t want to support it.”
Nandy announced that her Department for Culture, Media and Sport will also stop using X, making it the second government department to leave after the attorney general’s office. Her resignation from the platform came amid growing political fallout from violent protests in Southampton triggered by the release of bodycam footage showing 18-year-old Henry Nowak handcuffed and dying on the pavement.
“Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy quits X, calling it 'not healthy for democracy' after violent protests over Henry Nowak's death.”
“A platform originally designed for free speech and expression now favours abuse and misinformation over meaningful debate,” Nandy wrote. She said she will continue to use Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn.
Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch swiftly criticised the move on X. “DCMS is supposed to counter and deal with misinformation, not run away because it’s all too much,” she wrote.
Downing Street, however, signalled it would keep using the site. A No 10 spokeswoman said the government keeps its social media use “under review” and that it is up to individual ministers and departments whether they continue with X.
Attorney General Lord Hermer, who banned his office from posting on X last month, told MPs the platform “constantly descends to racism and misogyny” and that his department “can do better”. He argued: “For the work that I can do, I can engage with people in serious debate, detailed debate, respectful debate, without being on a platform that constantly descends to racism and misogyny.”
Several MPs, including Liberal Democrats Layla Moran and Vikki Slade, and Labour’s Darren Paffey, had already left X earlier this year after reports that its Grok AI tool was being used to create sexualised images, including of children. X has said anyone using Grok to make illegal content will face the same consequences as those uploading it directly.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has accused Musk of using the platform to “whip up division” in the UK after the murder of student Henry Nowak, whose killer Vickrum Digwa claimed he had been the victim of a racist attack. The bodycam footage of Nowak’s final moments prompted protests in Southampton and drew criticism from Musk himself over police treatment of the teenager.