UK Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy Quits X Over Misinformation
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- Lisa Nandy announced both she and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport are leaving X, stating the platform "isn't healthy for our democracy or our communities" and that it now "favours abuse and misinformation over meaningful debate."
- DCMS becomes the second government department to quit X after Attorney General Lord Hermer's office, which banned posting on the platform last month on grounds that it "constantly descends to racism and misogyny."
- Several MPs — Liberal Democrats Layla Moran and Vikki Slade, plus Labour's Darren Paffey — left X earlier this year after reports that the Grok AI tool was being used to generate sexualised images, including of children.
- Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch attacked the decision on X itself, writing that DCMS "is supposed to counter and deal with misinformation, not run away because it's all too much."
- Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has separately accused Elon Musk of using X to "whip up division" in the UK following the murder of student Henry Nowak and subsequent violent protests in Southampton.
- Nandy said she will continue engaging via Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn rather than abandoning government communication entirely.
- X has previously stated that "anyone using or prompting Grok to make illegal content will suffer the same consequences as if they upload illegal content."
Why it matters: DCMS is the second UK government department to quit X after the Attorney General's office, establishing an emerging pattern of UK officials publicly distancing themselves from the platform over its content-moderation failures, including the Grok image-generation controversy and Musk's own interventions in UK political flashpoints.
