First government department quits X over racism and violence concerns

Richard Hermer has become the first cabinet minister to order his department to leave X amid growing concerns that the social media platform is being used to incite violence and racism.

The attorney general’s office (AGO) last week stopped posting on the social media platform owned by Elon Musk, with the exception of legal warnings. The final post, promoting access to justice, was published on 12 June.

Hermer, who has been the subject of widespread antisemitism, does not have a personal account.

Increasingly, individual MPs, particularly women, have backed away from using X. In January, after Grok – the AI tool embedded in X – started allowing users to alter images of women and children by making them appear in bikinis and sexually suggestive poses, the women and equalities committee became the first committee in parliament to stop posting on the platform.

However, until now the government has refused to come off X. It has faced widespread criticism for staying on the platform, particularly after Musk addressed a Tommy Robinson rally last year. Speaking on a video link, the now trillionaire told around 110,000 attendees: “Whether you choose violence or not, violence is coming to you. You either fight back or you die.”

Although Hermer is a close ally of Keir Starmer, it is thought that attorney general is not pushing for other departments to follow suit.

Hermer’s decision, communicated to staff via a directive last week, comes off after a surge in mis- and disinformation in relation to the murder of Henry Nowak and the brutal knife attack in Belfast. The attorney general is said to be increasingly concerned about how X in particular is being used by bad actors to attempt to divide communities in the UK. In both cases, the platform was used by far-right activists including Robinson (real name Stephen Yaxley-Lennon) to coordinate protests, which in some cases led to riots.

High-profile politicians including Robert Jenrick shared doctored images from bodycam footage in the Nowak case, while Grok wrongly identified two former police officers as being among those attending the scene, resulting in details about the individuals being widely shared online.

This week two men were convicted of arson on property connected to Starmer. The attacks, carried out last year, were the subject of widespread conspiracy theories shared by Russian-linked accounts, and members of the far right – including Yaxley-Lennon, suggesting that the men behind it were “rent boys”. The Centre for Countering Digital Hate estimates that these “theories” were viewed nearly 18m times within a fortnight.

Hermer’s decision also follows the government’s move to ban social media for under-16s from next year, and impose other restrictions on 17- and 18-year-olds. The cabinet minister is understood to have supported stronger action on social media platforms.

This week, in a speech at a European Movement event, he said: “We simply cannot let a very small group of crypto-funded millionaires of this world get away with using the debate about the ECHR or drawing closer to the EU to sow more division in this country – we cannot allow them to draw lines between our communities.”

The AGO was contacted for comment.