UK minister Lisa Nandy took to social media to announce that she and her Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) will leave X, formerly known as Twitter, over its tilt towards “abuse and misinformation”.The British-Indian Culture Secretary said in a post on the Elon Musk-owned social media platform on Thursday that people can continue to follow her on alternative networks such as Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn.”I’ve decided to leave this platform and my Department will too,” reads her X post.”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,” she 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.It isn’t healthy for our democracy or our communities and I don’t want to support it.— Lisa Nandy MP (@lisanandy) July 2, 2026Nandy’s move makes DCMS the second UK government department to exit the platform, after Attorney General Lord Richard Hermer banned his department from using X last month.”I can understand why other departments feel they need to be on the pitch, engaging with people, but that is not where the attorney general’s office needs to be,” Hermer told the House of Commons Justice Committee soon after.”I can engage with people in serious debate, detailed debate, respectful debate without being on a platform that constantly descends to racism and misogyny. I think my department can do better than that,” he said.Nandy’s move is also significant because regulating media and online platforms falls within the remit of the DCMS.However, Opposition Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch criticised the move with her X post stating: “DCMS is supposed to counter and deal with misinformation, not run away because it’s all too much.”Earlier this year, the UK’s Office of Communications (Ofcom) launched an investigation into X over “deeply concerning” reports of its Grok artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot generating sexualised imagery to determine if it breached the country’s Online Safety Act.The country’s independent media watchdog gave the Musk-owned company a “firm deadline”, even as several British MPs left the platform in protest.”We have implemented technological measures to prevent the Grok account from allowing the editing of images of real people in revealing clothing,” X announced at the time.The platform has previously also faced criticism from British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who accused X’s tech billionaire owner of “trying to whip up division” in the country through some contentious posts on the platform.