Overview
- Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy announced she was leaving X and that the Department for Culture, Media and Sport will stop using the platform, saying it “favours abuse and misinformation” and is harmful to democracy.
- The DCMS is the second UK government department to pull its account after the Attorney General’s Office, a step that deepens a political dispute over whether officials should engage on X or withdraw.
- Ofcom and other regulators are actively probing X, including a formal Ofcom investigation into the Grok AI chatbot over reports it generated illegal, non-consensual intimate images, and those inquiries remain open.
- Conservative figures immediately criticised Nandy’s decision as abandoning on-platform counter-speech, while Labour leaders and ministers say the exit underlines the platform’s role in spreading harmful content.
- Nandy’s departure continues a wider pattern of institutional exits since Elon Musk’s 2022 takeover, a trend that has prompted calls for stronger enforcement under the Online Safety Act and could lead to further government and regulator action.