Culture Secretary and her department quit Elon Musk’s X

George Lithgow, PA Political and Home Affairs Correspondent

Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy has announced she is leaving X because the Elon Musk-owned platform “favours abuse and misinformation”.

The Wigan MP said the social media site “isn’t healthy for our democracy or our communities”, and that the Department for Culture, Media and Sport would also be leaving.

It becomes the second government department to stop using X after the Attorney General’s Office.

I’ve decided to leave this platform and my Department will too,” Ms Nandy said in a post.

“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.”

Ms Nandy said she would remain active on Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn.

The Attorney General defended his decision to ban his office from posting on X last month, telling MPs it “constantly descends to racism and misogyny”.

Lord Hermer, a close ally of Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, said his department “can do better”.

The Prime Minister had accused Mr Musk – the world’s first trillionaire – of trying to “whip up division” in the UK over the murder of student Henry Nowak last month.

Violent protests erupted near where the 18-year-old was killed amid an outcry over his treatment by police.

The following week, racist rioting took place in Belfast after a stabbing attack for which a 30-year-old Sudanese national was charged with attempted murder.

Online posts from people including Mr Musk and far-right activist Tommy Robinson had highlighted demands for people to take to the streets.

Lord Hermer was asked about the ban when he appeared before the Justice Committee.

He said: “I made that decision.

“I can understand why other departments feel they need to be on the pitch engaging with people, but that is not where the Attorney General’s Office needs to be.

“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.

“I think my department can do better than that.”

Asked if he would be encouraging other departments to follow suit, he said: “I can see there are very good reasons why some departments and some colleagues will want to be out there challenging things on that platform.

“My department doesn’t need to do that.”

Last month, Sir Keir unveiled a social media ban for under-16s which he said would give youngsters back their childhood.

In a response to the consultation on a ban, the US embassy in London said the country preferred “narrowly targeted requirements” for adult content “rather than broad social media bans”.

While the US said it did not “categorically oppose age assurance measures”, it said: “Most content should remain accessible by default, including political speech.”

Responding to Ms Nandy’s decision, Tory leader Kemi Badenoch said: “DCMS is supposed to counter and deal with misinformation, not run away because it’s all too much.”

---

Get more trusted Welsh news

Choose Nation.Cymru as a preferred source in Google News to see more of our journalism.