Mocked online for her ‘Bluesky thinking,‘ Britain’s Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport Lisa Nandy has officially flounced off Elon Musk’s social media platform.
The Labour cabinet minister, daughter of the Bengali Marxist Dipak Nandy, posted her farewell message on X:
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.
While the MP’s individual decision to join the X-odus is insignificant—after all, ”You can follow me on Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn,” she huffed—it is striking that the official account for her Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) was also dragged off as part of her decision.
X, formerly Twitter, enjoys serious reach as a platform and removing a public entity like the DCMS from it will reduce public scrutiny. Secondly, Nandy’s declared hostility to X does not bode well for the outcome of the various decisions pending where her department is expected to become more involved in regulating social media in the UK.
