British police reduce X presence amid concerns over extremist content

By Andy Bruce and Muvija M

(Reuters) – During Elon Musk’s

X, formerly Twitter, was used this summer to spread disinformation that led to riots across the UK and has restored UK-based accounts that had been suspended for extremist content. Critics say Musk’s low-key approach has allowed lies and hate speech to spread.

Reuters contacted all 45 territorial police forces and the British Transport Police by email. Of the 33 police forces that provided details of their policies, 10 police forces, which collectively police nearly 13 million people, said they were reducing their presence

X has been a key communications channel for the British government, civil service and even the royal family for more than 10 years. For emergency services, the concise format and wide reach are effective in alerting users to everything from civil emergencies to missing people to road closures.

But of those 23 forces, six said they would reduce their presence to just one or two X accounts. Firstly, North Wales Police, which serves almost 700,000 residents, stopped using X completely in August.

“We … felt the platform no longer aligned with our values ​​and therefore ceased its use,” said Chief Constable Amanda Blakeman, adding that they would continue to monitor and consider alternative platforms.

Also in Wales, Gwent Police said it was reviewing X due to questions about the “tone of the platform and whether this is the right place to reach our communities”. All of Gwent’s individual officer accounts have been removed.

West Yorkshire Police said they wanted to find out whether X would continue to help them reach their target audience and build trust in the community.

X did not respond to a request for comment.

Uprisings due to disinformation lead to immediate scrutiny of X

The role of an Islamist migrant.

Musk said on X that a “civil war” was inevitable. Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, a British anti-Muslim activist named Tommy Robinson, thanked Musk for giving him the opportunity on X to “push back the lies and propaganda of the mainstream media.”

The story continues

Musk has also backed right-wing activists who say there has been a “two-tiered policing” approach in Britain: police are supposed to be lenient toward ethnic minority and left-leaning protesters, while far-right demonstrators are swiftly punished.

Senior police officers say the idea is baseless and that it is in the public interest to quickly address violent unrest. The head of London’s Metropolitan Police said the allegation put officers at risk.

None of the police forces said their reviews were directly related to the summer unrest.

But Paul Reilly, a lecturer in communications, media and democracy at the University of Glasgow, said many users had left X “in response to the amount of hate speech, disinformation and of course Elon Musk’s use of X”.

“As a result, organizations that want to reach these target groups move to other platforms with them.”

Charity, health and educational institutions fall X

Of the 32 emergency and fire services surveyed by Reuters, nine said they were reducing their presence

Individuals within the emergency services said they were weighing up whether the benefits of the platform still justified their association with it.

In recent months, a number of British charities, health and education organizations have said they will no longer post on X.

Musk said he defended freedom of speech and compared Britain’s anti-hate speech laws to Soviet censorship. New online safety laws will soon require tech companies to remove illegal content, including hate speech, from their platforms.

Digital analytics firm Similarweb estimates that the number of iOS and Android app users of X in the UK fell 17.7% in a year to 10.4 million in September. Two years ago there were 15 million. Similarweb also estimated a decline of 7.9% for the USA last year.

The UK government continues to post on X but does not use it for paid communications. However, advertising will run on Meta’s Instagram and Facebook, a government source told Reuters.

Adam Hadley, executive director of the United Nations-backed Tech Against Terrorism initiative, said authorities should choose their social media carefully.

“Platforms are somehow political: they have identities and therefore where they post matters.”

(Additional reporting by Michael Holden; Editing by Kevin Liffey)