British police forces have reduced and abandoned their presence on Elon Musk’s social media platform X (formerly Twitter) because of extremist content concerns.
According to Reuters, X played a key role during the widespread deadly riots in the UK this summer and even restored the British-based accounts that were banned for spreading extremist content, which experts believe has allowed people to spread hate speech and disinformation.
Reuters contacted 45 territorial police forces and British Transport Police via email out of which 33 shared their details about their policies. 10 forces that police nearly 13 million people said that they actively review their presence on the social media platform while the 13 forces said they frequently revive their policies regarding social media platforms.
Of these 33 police forces, six revealed that they had reduced their presence to just one or two accounts on the platforms, while North Wales Police, which serves around 700,000 residents, said that they had stopped using X completely in August 2024.
Chief Constable Amanda Blakeman asserted, “We ... felt that the platform was no longer consistent with our values, and therefore we have withdrawn our use of it,” adding that they will continue to monitor alternative platforms.
To note, X has been a key channel of communication for the British government, public services, and even the royal family for more than a decade.
