UK culture minister quits X over ‘abuse and misinformation’

UK Department of Culture, Media and Sport will also stop using social media platform.The United Kingom’s Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy has quit X, accusing the social media platform of promoting “abuse and misinformation over meaningful debate”.Nandy previously raised concerns about online safety and the spread of misinformation on the platform.In a post on X on Thursday, she announced the Department of Culture, Media and Sport will also be exiting the platform, which she added “isn’t healthy for our democracy or our communities”.There was no immediate comment from X.The DCMS is the second UK government department to stop using X after the Attorney General’s Office, which stopped using the platform last month. The attorney general defended his decision to ban his office from posting on X, telling MPs it “constantly descends to racism and misogyny”.Nandy says she will remain active on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn.Critics in the UK, the US, and other countries have accused Elon Musk, the owner of X, of removing controls designed to prevent misinformation, discrimination, and harassment. Some say that since Musk took ownership of Twitter in 2022, and rebranded it as X, the platform has promoted extremist material and a “toxic” online culture that whips up “division”.This led many news outlets, celebrities and organisations to withdraw from X.X under more regulatory scrutinyNandy’s announcement comes as Musk’s platform faces growing regulatory scrutiny and political pressure in the UK and elsewhere ⁠over concerns about online safety, misinformation and AI-generated content.