When Keir Starmer ran for Labour leader in 2020, his advisers seriously considered whether to quit Twitter for good.
Many of Starmer’s close associates were enthusiastic about leaving office, the party still feeling the pinch from the brutal election campaign and the bitterness with which it had been conducted on social media.
Even in the era before Elon Musk took over Twitter (renaming it X, bringing back far-right figures like Tommy Robinson, and overseeing a Increase in misinformation –There was a sense that the essentially combative nature of the platform was fueling something dark in politics.
Starmer himself has long been a sceptic about the platform’s usefulness and has been repeatedly frustrated by the headaches caused by his own MPs when they get into trouble for their posts.
But that initial idea of a boycott never materialised – it was too difficult to do so in opposition. Now the reliance on X is even greater. Politicians, government departments and public figures use it as a conduit for important announcements. Rishi Sunak, as prime minister, wooed Musk with a soft-spoken interview at his AI summit.
For years, Labour has followed a “tweet first” strategy, meaning announcements and responses were posted on X even before official press releases were sent out. But there are now murmurs in government about how long this can continue, and this week Musk openly mocked Starmer, calling him a “two-tier Keir” and sharing misinformation with millions of followers.
In the official language used by government ministers, X is not mentioned as an isolated problem. The problem of misinformation on the platform is mentioned alongside Facebook, YouTube, TikTok and WhatsApp as a widespread problem.
But there is a private acknowledgement that X is different for two reasons: first, because it is the platform of choice for politicians and journalists, meaning accuracy is particularly valued, and second, because of its owner’s manifest influence in fostering disinformation.
Starmer’s spokesman took the decision to criticise Musk’s comment that “civil war is inevitable” in a post showing a video of riots in Liverpool, saying it had “no justification”. The video was initially posted by Robinson, albeit on another user’s feed.
But since then, the billionaire has clearly relished baiting the prime minister, with multiple tweets highlighting Labour prep gangs or calling him a “two-tier Keir” to suggest far-right demonstrations have been policed more harshly than Black Lives Matter or Gaza protests.
On Thursday, Musk amplified a fake headline, purportedly from the Telegraph, that said convicted rioters would be sent to detention camps, first posted by the Britain First leader. He deleted the post after about 30 minutes, but not before it had received 2 million views.
Musk will probably soon lose interest in provoking Starmer and return his focus to the US election. But it has been a difficult situation for the new government to manage. For now, the first point of contact is greater interaction with social media companies, although whether more can be done with the Internet Safety Act will be re-examined.
But if that proves fruitless, the next option can only be to review how the government uses the platform. It is a vicious circle: most high-profile users will not leave X because it is where the key dissemination of information is. Many politicians would be against leaving the platform: Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London, said on Thursday that he considered it crucial to be a player there because of how it could be used to counter disinformation.
But some public bodies are already opting out. On Thursday, one NHS trust left X, saying the platform was “no longer consistent with our trust values”.
And some Labour MPs are reconsidering how they use it. Andrew Lewin, MP for Welwyn Hatfield, said he had not decided to leave, but added: “After Elon Musk’s reprehensible behaviour this week, I will be here less. Musk is using his platform to sow division and fan the flames of hatred. It is indefensible.” His peer, new MP Yuan Yang, said Lewin’s comments seemed “increasingly relevant”.
The uncomfortable reality is that no other platform offers the same immediate access to influential figures or acts as a breaking news network in the same way. Meta’s Threads platform comes closest, but so far Mark Zuckerberg doesn’t appear to be courting the government or the media to jump ship. In fact, Political content is not enhanced at all by its algorithm and is opt-in only.
For now, X is pretty much the only social media space people go to specifically to hear politics, and that might be too valuable to give up.