Lisa Nandy has become the second government minister to abandon Elon Musk's X platform, announcing her departure in what she said would be her final post on the site. The culture secretary wrote that X "isn't healthy for our democracy or our communities and I don't want to support it", adding that a platform "originally designed for free speech and expression now favours abuse and misinformation over meaningful debate".
Her department, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, will also stop using X, making it the second government department to do so after the attorney general's office. The move drew an immediate rebuke from Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch, who wrote on X that "DCMS is supposed to counter and deal with misinformation, not run away because it's all too much."
“Lisa Nandy quits X, calling it 'unhealthy for democracy' as DCMS becomes second government department to leave.”
Downing Street indicated it would continue using the platform. A spokeswoman for No 10 said it kept its use of social media "under review" and that it was up to individual ministers and their departments to decide whether to continue using X. Nandy said she would continue to use Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn.
The 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". "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," he told the Justice Committee in June.
Several MPs, including Liberal Democrat Layla Moran and Vikki Slade, and Labour's Darren Paffey, left X earlier this year after reports that its AI tool Grok was being used to create sexualised images, including of children. X has said: "Anyone using or prompting Grok to make illegal content will suffer the same consequences as if they upload illegal content."
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has accused Musk of using his platform to "whip up division" in the UK over the murder of student Henry Nowak last month. Violent protests erupted in Southampton after bodycam footage showed police handcuffing the 18-year-old Nowak as he lay dying. His killer, Vickrum Digwa, had claimed he was the victim of a racist attack. The footage prompted widespread political reaction and criticism from Musk of police treatment of the teenager.