Lisa Nandy has announced she is leaving X, declaring the platform “isn’t healthy for our democracy” as she made her exit public.
The Culture Secretary posted her decision directly on X on Thursday, writing: “I’ve decided to leave this platform and my Department will too.”
Nandy argued that the platform had fundamentally changed its character, stating it “now favors abuse and misinformation over meaningful debate.”
She confirmed she would continue engaging with the public through Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn following her departure from X.
The minister had previously raised concerns about Elon Musk’s approach to user safeguarding and the spread of misinformation on the platform.
Speaking with Lewis Goodall, Nandy admitted she had already taken a temporary break from X, saying that leaving “has made me a healthier person.”
Her announcement drew an immediate and sharp response from Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch, who hit back on the platform itself.
Badenoch wrote: “DCMS (Department of Culture, Media and Sport) is supposed to counter and deal with misinformation, not run away because it’s all too much.”
The DCMS becomes the second UK government department to abandon X, following the Attorney General’s Office, which departed from the platform last month.
The Attorney General defended that earlier decision to MPs, saying the platform “constantly descends to racism and misogyny.”
Media regulator Ofcom launched a formal investigation into X on January 12, after reports that the Grok chatbot had been used to generate illegal, nonconsensual intimate images.
Ofcom has since issued legally binding requests for information to X, with the case still open and no formal findings yet published.
X told Ofcom it had introduced new safeguards in response, though the regulator has not yet concluded whether those measures are sufficient.
Nandy’s exit is the latest in a broader wave of institutional departures from X following Elon Musk’s 2022 takeover and rebrand from Twitter.
Other organisations that have left the platform include The Guardian, NPR, and the European Federation of Journalists, which represents more than 320,000 journalists worldwide.
