UK Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy quits X, DCMS leaves platform
UK Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy quits TwitterX. This should be the first of many.
Mark Chadbourn272Doesn’t do Bluesky though - only Facebook, Insta and bizarrely LinkedIn.
Dan Pelligrino80Good news but jesus it took long enough.
Coolhandluke69Begs the question - why does the BBC still have hundreds of X accounts? Time for the BBC to fully withdraw from that platform. Ideally with weeks.
Ben Taylor38She is quite literally the culture secretary. Does regulation of platforms like X not fall within her remit? I'm glad she's recognised the threat finally but FTLOG why is the only reaction to belatedly skulk off the platform?
Innocent🕷Abroad31Didn’t the Ministry of Justice leave recently? She may not be the first.
Mr Snodes18Give it 6 months and she’ll work out she’s also supposed to be culture secretary.
Julianna 💎29No snark, this is a good move and she has regained a *tiny* bit of my respect for doing it (If you're reading this for some reason, Nandy, that's from a pretty low starting point, don't let it go to your head)
Heather Herbert is going to go back to sleep.9Good but I suspect it won't be
Canadian Cynic6Dear Mark Carney: What the fuck in the fucking fuck are you waiting for, you pandering fascist?
OB1 Rebel5Better super late than never.
Ben Fenton4Important point that DCMS is leaving Twitter - this is the “expert” department for this issue. It’s as if DSIT dropped Palantir. As if.
Karen D Shipp4Nandy takes Ministry of Culture Media and Sport off Twitter. Hurrah. It's interesting, and mostly cheering, to see the choices being taken by Starmer and his cabinet, as they realise this may be their last chance to benefit the UK, in the particular positions of power that they hold.
James Steel3More please, the entire government and MPs should be leaving the old place.
Scott in Montreal🇨🇦3All serious people and organizations should abandon Musk's enshittified platform. It's like putting your letters into the toilet instead of a mailbox.
Jack Russell3This is great news. Now for everyone else @eddavey.libdems.org.uk @naomilong.bsky.social . You had a chance to lead the way, but second best is leaving right now.
Tuomas Äystö2EU politicians: what on earth are you still doing there?
Lisa Nandy announces she is leaving X. “A platform originally designed for free speech and expression now favours abuse and misinformation over meaningful debate. It isn't healthy for our democracy or our communities and I don’t want to support it”
Matt Edwards26If only a humble Secretary of State for Culture could do more than rage quit.
Fazackerly Butterworth-Toast23About time. The entire UK govt and civil service should quit X.
Caroline Jackson17Good about time! UK Labour party & their MPs should follow suit & come over here.
mja6615She's only just noticed? Better late than never. Just good to know she's still awake.
Matt Severn11She is culture secretary. She can take meaningful action to curb X. She’s had 2 years to take meaningful action.
Age Garton7I sincerely hope more follow.
Kudos to Lisa Nandy for leaving X today - and taking her department with her. Hope she and DCMS are on here soon enough
AndroidMark9Surely part of her job is forcing it to not be those things?
Katharine Kite 7Weak - ‘I don’t want to support it’ How about ‘this department will not collude with owners of platforms inciting violence against women, girls, people of colour & LGBTQ+ people & which financially supports those that carry out such violence. We intend to hold such individuals to account under law’
Coolhandluke3Surely the BBC needs to follow suit? DCMS are literally negotiating the Charter with the BBC and have clearly spelled out their views about that platform - yet the BBC has hundreds of X accounts. That is unsustainable.
TweetJohnnyBoy2She's done something positive. How about she sorts out the BBC?
Naught Followers (you drove Popehat away, you absolute ghouls!)1I swear she has an account here, but I must be mistaken
Bikey McBikeface1Bollocks. She failed to regulate twitter. Weak and spineless.
Dreadnought Holiday203Nandy must be absolutely furious with the person whose department is responsible for overseeing this stuff, assuming she ever finds out who they are.
Ketan Joshi13Oh sure, it's easy to have a snooty, superior moral position on this But if you refuse to post short sentences on one non-consensual deepfake abuse generation website, then you won't be able to post short sentences on ANY non-consensual deepfake abuse generation website Where does it STOP??
Mrs Quent8Does make me wonder if Starmer’s number 10 had told ministers they needed to stay on X
Sorry Buddy6Electeds are the second-most trendchasing group I've ever met (after c suites). If you're in Canada, the UK or any other democracy, this is a great reason to write your electeds, note that other elected politicians are leaving X, and ask whether they will do the same.
SanguinePar2The best time to do this was some years ago, but the second best time is now, so good stuff 👍 Hopefully this presages more government departments leaving, and also the government cracking down on the platform itself.
Simon Wyatt 🇺🇦2Better late than never. All other Labour MPs ought to follow.
Lisa Nandy currently engaged in the greatest last-minute attempt to feign interest in culture since I tried to read the second half of Sons And Lovers the night before my English A-Level.
Martin15I heard a few days ago that Lisa Nandy was ‘minded’ to object to a media company takeover of some sort. That makes two decisions in one week. Looks like someone is trying to look like they can do their job for when the new boss starts.
Trevor Stables 🇨🇵 🔶🏳️🌈🇪🇺10Exactly, she has done zéro on Social Media, Leveson, GBN, BBC bias and septic social media.
JudithFlanders10Lisa Nandy also appears to think that abandoning (finally) a pro-Nazi social-media site for a company mired in genocidal engagement and political corruption is some kind of feat of probity and grace.
Andy Kingdon 🔶️8Frankly less convincing. "Nandy" should be used as a replacement for the phrase "chocolate teapot"
theangelofhistory.bsky.social6She’s doing the equivalent of putting the book under her pillow and hoping she’ll absorb it in her sleep
Ian Stevens4Nandy suddenly discovering that positioning yourself as a Friend of Burnham and hoping for a job in his government may count for less when 400 other politicians are doing the same thing.
UK Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy is quitting X -- significantly her department is too, she says.
Stephen Kinsella10That’s a start. Now we need them here.
ala8.bsky.social3Any decent MP should do the same, just a cesspit of hate and misinformation by that fascist Musk
Martin3Amazing how that now we have a new incoming PM that Lisa Nandy has made two announcements in one week. She spent the last two years doing bugger all.
keithstrasse.bsky.social1Nandy at least can see which way the wind is blowing (although she usually sits on the fence until she finds out!).
Richard Walker1Possibly her last action as a minister given how disinterested she appears to be in being one, but at least it is a positive one!
Dexter Crisp1"A platform originally designed for free speech and expression" I thought it was designed for funny cat videos?
James Ball97Fascinating that she's done this now, after two years of total inactivity – and a week or two of briefing that she was likely to be promoted. Notably, she doesn't have an account here (yet?).
Marlowe_UK50The beginning of the Labour government leaving X has started
Molly Scott Cato31At last Let's hope the rest of government will follow And that the new Burnham government will have the courage to #BanX altogether
Gregory Norminton19Two years late, but I'll take it. Now for the whole of UK government to do the same.
GuyD14This should not even have been in doubt for any and every government department
Ashpolt4One down, far too many still to go.
yyzkas.bsky.social2All levels of government in Canada should follow suit of the UK Culture Secretary and stop patronizing X / Twitter. The racist, & manipulative forum promoted by E. Musk is no platform to serve Canadians #MarkCarney #EvanSolomon #MelanieJolie #DougFord #ONpoli #CDNpoli bsky.app/profile/psmi...
Bryan Kirby2And the rest of Government ASAP please.
Jan Willem Goudriaan2But @ec.europa.eu Commissioners remain actively feeding a platform used to abuse and misinform And she is right It undermines democracy
Dermot O’Riordan2Good call. It’s taken way too long but I’m not going to be churlish and criticise her for making the right and principled decision
Oh look, the person in charge of regulating social media has chosen not to regulate social media 🤷♂️ Is Lisa Nandy quitting Twitter instead of regulating to fix Twitter, incompetentence, cowardice, or both?
Devaney 🇬🇧🇩🇪17Being on there legitimises the platform. All government departments should have removed themselves from X the moment Musk gave his Nazi salute, or before. She doesn’t need to be on X anymore than on Tiky Toky to regulate them.
Tarquin10Or maybe she just doesn't want to be on there any more. I applaud her decision to leave. Everyone decent should leave too. Even if she does try to get it fixed, do you think musk will play ball?
Indyref_Chris8I'm no fan of Nandy, but I'm not going to criticise her for this long overdue decision. The entire political apparatus should follow her lead
JR Tomlin (she/her)7Wait. Let me get this straight. You are criticising her for leaving a fascist platform? *blinks*
Jac 🩵 🍉6Exactly, far easier to leave than use HER job to regulate, more appeasement of the tech companies that have free rein in the UK, Palantir anyone???
Ruth Shaw5I regard this move as a possible start toward a better way forward. Easy to criticise.
Culture Lisa Nandy MP follows the Attorney General in quitting Twitter/X. She notes the platform has changed: "a platform originally designed for free speech and expression now favours abuse and misinformation over meaningful debate".
Snigdha86The Attorney General Richard Hermer was the first to tell his office to stop posting on Twitter/X, last month, the first UK government department to stop using the platform amid increasing worries about misinformation and its use to incite violence and racism. www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
Neil C13So, the culture secretary is leaving a site that is under her jurisdiction due to its misinformation, but isn't actually going to do anything about it?
Tarquin13Good, but really odd she's continuing with Facebook & Instagram, considering both those places are as bad as X. I have 1st hand experience with FB, but am going by what I've heard re: Instagram. There's not a lot of difference between zuckerberg & musk, imho.
Mike here, hello5Just Meta from now on for her 🙈
Phil Lowthian4Little by little but nowhere near quickly enough by the @gov.uk
Steve 🏳️🌈🇬🇧4It's hard for me not to be cynical at her timing!
Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy says DCMS will leave X This follows Elon Musk's radicalisation into the increasingly open advocacy of violence - here pro-assassinations + collective racist violence versus migrants & minorities.
Sunder Katwala (sundersays)23The radicalised billionaire believes Britain is already in an inevitable civil war. So this man,who grew up in an apartheid state, spends his time & his platform's enormous reach to try to persuade more people to see pre-emptive racist violence in Britain as legitimate. bsky.app/profile/sund...
Grae Hall6I'd suggest Elon Musk perhaps spend less time calling for the execution of problematic immigrants lest he be hoisted on his own bloody petard
Ghost of Hope 🏳️⚧️3Nandy moving with lightning reflexes to act two years after she should have. And... if only she was in charge of the ministry whose job it is to rein in the excesses of social media empires. Still, best just leave eh lads
PhilT6022Well done Lisa. Now what about the rest of those civil servants perpetuating Musk's evil X empire?
Pete Thompson 2Good but she could go further by growing a backbone and challenging Musk.
Pam Hardy1Here’s hoping it sets the ball rolling in other ministries.
Libby Brooks11I still find it boggling that both Burnham and Streeting announced their Labour leadership plans via X, a platform that has relentlessly undermined the party
Helen Belcher3Good. Now i wonder which government department has responsibility for digital services including social media...
Mary Branscombe2alt text a post announcing that Nandy and her department will leave X because it now favours abuse and misinformation over meanginful debate next to a screenshot of Musk retweeting the post with a man pointing a gun at the viewer
Lisa Nandy clearing her desk in hope of a new job and discovering a weird wired basket with INTRAY written on it. What's this she thinks and starts to read the papers inside it...
Chairman Moët30Brow furrowed, rifling through the papers, dated from months ago, only stopping to say things like "GB NEWS did WHAT?!" or "What the fuck is [Michael] Grade playing at?!"
Indy4It’s the most bizarre few days.
Chris Nimmo3Sounds very apt ! What has she done for two years ????
Simon Robert H K1Yes yes yes. #inertia. She did nothing at all!
Lisa Nandy has announced she and her department are leaving X. After many MPs such as me, then the Attorney General a couple of weeks ago, perhaps this is the snowball starting to roll?
Philip Creegan6Please urge your parliamentary colleagues 🙏
stephena77.bsky.social4I certainly hope so. It has been a long time coming.
Carl H3Good for you and her. No decent government expected to set an example should be using such a platform to communicate. If it is so important and the only considered means to engage and get the message across then how about the UK Govt develop their own...now there's a thought🤔
Ruth Shaw2About time. X is a cess pit. I left ages ago.
Keith2Let's hope so, I know bluesky is quite slow , but the more mps use it ,it will encourage journalists /news channels to use this site more .
serena-spencer-esq.bsky.social2I hope UK bans Twitter. Musk has been interfering in your politics and hyping up #RaceWars there, just like here. U.S. refuses to extricate itself from enmeshment with Musk, despite how he & DOGE compromised us. His twitter is just hateful propaganda, porn, bullying & racism. 🚩Save yourselves.🇬🇧
Culture secretary Lisa Nandy says she and the DCMS as a department are leaving X, adding: "It isn't healthy for our democracy or our communities and I don’t want to support it." No Bluesky account yet though...
James Bottomley3Hopefully the first of many. A site where the owner posts neo-Nazi films and routinely smears Britain's way of life and democracy is no fit place for UK government departments and agencies.
Andrew Allen2if she searches bluesky and sees what people say about her...don't think she'll want to join
Nick R1I did not expect the most useless Secretary of State to be the first one to do this
Dan Grey5Finally a government department is leaving the cesspit
Rhys Davies2About time. I hope more of the arms of the British state leaves X.
Jason2Better late than never, and you'd assume the rest of UK government will now follow suit. I find it hard to see a case for why they should be getting on bluesky though.
Lisa Nandy, the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, has announced that she and her department are leaving X. A positive step that needs to be matched by an official account on Bluesky. Currently, unlike many of her party colleagues, she doesn't even have a personal profile on here.
maggieh78.bsky.social2I don't understand why every decent person doesn't leave X, they're not exactly going to be given a sympathetic ear. Apart from the racism and misogyny, just take away the clicks for money.
"Stevieboy"2The Government needs to leave X . Its unhealthy, full of abuse with some incredibly unsavoury accounts. Including the owner.
flyfella.bsky.social1Twitter, after that spoon face Nazi moron bought it, became a cesspool of racism, sexism, antisemitism & arseholery. It’s taken Nandy a while to realise this.
Matt Hinton1Posted this earlier....she's uniquely placed to tackle X/Musk and this is the best she's got. bsky.app/profile/matt...
The thing is… if a future DCMS secretary does choose to re-engage, it’s a now a bit of a statement in the other direction isn’t it.
Steve Parks1Right decision, and hopefully for the right reasons - but yes, there may also be a bit of ministerial pissing in the pool about the timing. Or maybe just finally trying to do something that people notice as she jostles for a job?
BetterBert1For the foreseeable future it's a statement we can assume won't be made. Not by a sane politician anyway. Figures from last year but I don't think inserting himself into Northern Ireland violence will have improved them much.
