Lisa Nandy has become the most senior government figure to abandon Elon Musk’s X platform, announcing that she and her department are leaving because the site “favours abuse and misinformation over meaningful debate”. In what appeared to be her final post on the platform, the culture secretary wrote that X “isn’t healthy for our democracy or our communities and I don’t want to support it”. The Department for Culture, Media and Sport is the second government department to quit X, following the attorney general’s office, whose head, Lord Hermer, told MPs last month that the platform “constantly descends to racism and misogyny”.
Nandy’s decision comes amid a wider political backlash over the platform’s role in stoking violence and division. Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has accused Musk of using X to “whip up division” in the UK following the murder of 18-year-old student Henry Nowak in Southampton. The release of bodycam footage showing police handcuffing Nowak as he lay dying triggered violent protests. His killer, Vickrum Digwa, had claimed he was the victim of a racist attack. Musk himself criticised the police treatment of the teenager.
“Culture secretary Lisa Nandy quits X, saying the platform 'isn't healthy for our democracy' – the second government department to leave.”
The culture secretary’s exit also follows reports that X’s AI tool, Grok, was being used to create sexualised images, including of children. Several MPs – including Liberal Democrats Layla Moran and Vikki Slade, and Labour’s Darren Paffey – left the platform earlier this year over those concerns. X has said that anyone using Grok to make illegal content “will suffer the same consequences as if they upload illegal content”.
Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch responded by accusing Nandy of running away. “DCMS is supposed to counter and deal with misinformation, not run away because it’s all too much,” she wrote on X. Nandy said she would continue to use Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn.
The move is symbolically significant given that DCMS is responsible for media regulation, though enforcement against X has so far been left to Ofcom. It remains unclear whether the decision will be permanent: Andy Burnham is expected to take over as prime minister within weeks, and a new culture secretary could reverse course.
But for now, the government’s retreat from a platform that, according to Lord Hermer, “constantly descends to racism and misogyny” marks a sharp shift – one that Musk himself has helped provoke. In September last year, in a video address to a far-right march in London, Musk warned that “violence is coming to you” and called for a “change of government”.