Science and Technology Secretary Liz Kendall addressed calls for the government to stop posting on X (mainly by Labour MPs) while discussing potentially banning the platform in the Commons. Hilariously she explained that the reason they haven’t done that yet is because many people get their news from the site. She said:
“Understandable calls for the government to end its participation on X. I really do understand why many colleagues have come to this conclusion when X seems so unwilling to clean up its act. The government will of course keep our participation on X under review. But our job is to protect women and girls from illegal and harmful content wherever it is found. And I think it’s also worth bearing in mind with 19 million people on X in this country and more than a quarter of them saying that it they use it as their primary source of news that our views and often simply the facts need to be heard wherever possible.”
And they want to ban it…
Business Secretary Peter Kyle told Times Radio that the government is considering banning X:
“Yes, of course. We gave these powers to Ofcom and not giving them the powers to Ofcom with the proviso that they will never be used. We gave very strident powers to Ofcom, which is our independent regulator, with very specific legal obligations to and the powers to use them in certain circumstances. So the law doesn’t allow for these sorts of powers to be used in certain circumstances.”