Culture secretary Lisa Nandy has announced that she has left the social media platform X – formerly known as Twitter – and that the Department for Culture, Media and Sport will do the same.
DCMS’s departure from X follows a similar move on the part of the Attorney General’s Office, announced last month in the wake of public disorder in Southampton and Belfast seen as being fuelled by social media.
In a post on X yesterday, Nandy said: “I've decided to leave this platform and my department will too. A platform originally designed for free speech and expression now favours abuse and misinformation over meaningful debate.”
She added: “It isn't healthy for our democracy or our communities and I don’t want to support it.”
Nandy said she would continue to post on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn. She did not give details of a specific issue that drove her decision to leave X.
Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch criticised Nandy’s announcement. Writing on X, she said the department ought to be using its influence to combat problems with widely-used social media platforms.
“DCMS is supposed to counter and deal with misinformation, not run away because it's all too much,” she said.
DCMS still has a link to its X feed on the departmental homepage. Its most recent update on the platform is a repost of Nandy’s message yesterday afternoon.
Last month, attorney general Richard Hermer instructed officials at the AGO not to post on X for any purpose other than countering misinformation. The department still has an X feed on its homepage, but does not appear to have posted on the site since 12 June.
Asked about his decision at a session of parliament’s Justice Committee last week, Lord Hermer said he could understand why other departments feel compelled to “be on the pitch engaging with people” but said X is not somewhere the AGO “needs to be”.
“For the work that I can do, I can engage with people in serious, detailed and respectful debate without being on a platform that constantly descends to racism and misogyny,” he said. “My department can do better than that.”
Hermer was asked whether he felt other government departments should follow suit.
He responded: “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 does not need to do that.”
Civil Service World asked DCMS if it would be deleting its X account and removing the feed from its homepage, or whether its definition of “leaving” is more in line with the AGO’s approach.
The department had not responded at the time of publication.