Westminster needs to let go of X, said a close ally of Keir Starmer, who suggested Elon Musk was deliberately manipulating its algorithm to advance his own political and personal interests.
Josh Simons, MP for Makerfield and former director of Starmerite think tank Labor Together, said he believed Britain’s political class was dangerously addicted to the platform, formerly known as Twitter. Simons maintains an active X profile, but says he doesn’t want to “abuse it.”
His comments reflect growing concern among Labor MPs about the impact of X following the summer riots, during which misinformation spread rapidly on the platform. But they also threaten to exacerbate tensions between the government and the company, with Musk continuing to attack Starmer over ministers’ response to the violence.
Simons, a technology expert who wrote a book on artificial intelligence, told The Guardian in an interview: “I think Twitter’s algorithm, its ranking model, which determines what we see on Twitter when we open it, has manifestly changed since that Elon Musk took the initiative. on. Mostly because I don’t think I’ve ever liked anything he said, and I watch it a lot all the time, and I really don’t want to.
“I’ve even said, ‘Show less of this,’ and there it is, always. And that’s a sure sign: when a founder and owner of a company sees more of them in an algorithm, even though they don’t like them, (of) something is happening.”
He added: “I think it is completely and completely wrong and damaging to British democracy that the Westminster bubble knows each other through a ranking model designed by a man who spends his life campaigning for Donald Trump. “I think it is a short-sighted attitude on our part.”
X did not respond to a request for comment.
Relations between the government and the social media company have been strained since the summer riots, which experts say were fueled by online misinformation about the identity of the attacker who killed three children in Southport.
As the violence escalated, Musk repeatedly posted about them, including a video of riots in Liverpool, which he annotated with the quote “civil war is inevitable.” Downing Street publicly criticized those comments, saying they were “unjustified,” and in turn was met with another barrage of angry posts from Musk.
The owner of X renewed his attack on the Labor government last month after failing to receive an invitation to Monday’s international investment summit. “I don’t think anyone should go to the UK when they are releasing convicted pedophiles (sic) to jail people for social media posts,” he posted, in apparent reference to the government’s early release plan.
Many Labor MPs left X and instead created profiles on rival platforms such as Bluesky.
Simons, who used to work for Meta on its artificial intelligence program and is now standing for election to the House of Commons technology select committee, said he thought the new generation of MPs were more skeptical about the platform than his predecessors.
“The mood is changing radically,” says the 31-year-old. “In fact, I think Twitter has something like Boomers/Gen-Xer. It is interesting that among the new entrants, many people are quite skeptical about it. This doesn’t necessarily mean they never use it, especially since it gives us another tool in which to be seen.”
He also said he believed the AI debate had been dominated for too long by older politicians who did not grow up steeped in technology as his own generation did. Those people, he said, were often either too optimistic or too pessimistic about how technology could change the way government works.
Former Prime Minister Tony Blair and former Conservative leader William Hague have been two of the more outspoken defenders for widespread adoption of AI by the public sector. Former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has spoken positively of its potential but has also warned of its “existential risk” to humanity.
Simons said: “There is a generation (that) didn’t really grow up with data and technology, and they have very simplistic, reductivist, often utopian or apocalyptic ways of thinking about the future of the state or public services or the economy in relation to the technology.
“AI can often be a distraction from delving a level deeper into the technology, in order to better understand its politics and policy implications.”