Lisa Nandy has said it is an ‘absolute disgrace’ that representatives from Elon Musk’s X ‘didn’t even bother to turn up’ to a meeting addressing the abuse of RLNI workers
A Cabinet minister accused Elon Musk’s X of having a ‘disgraceful attitude to their own moral and social obligations’(Image: AFP via Getty Images)
Lisa Nandy has accused Elon Musk’s X of having a “disgraceful attitude” to its moral and social obligations after failing to attend a meeting addressing the abuse of RLNI workers.
The Digital Secretary hauled in social media platforms on Tuesday after life-saving crews were abused online and labelled traitors by anti-migrant thugs for rescuing asylum seekers in the Channel.
Ms Nandy demanded tech firms step up in tackling doxxing – the sharing of personal information online – after RLNI volunteers, as well as police officers and journalists, saw their names, photos and addresses posted online. She indicated that she is looking at tightening the law to make doxxing a criminal offence.
The Cabinet minister also raised concerns about videos glorifying dangerous driving after a deadly crash on the A66 killed seven people including two police officers.
She told LBC on Wednesday: “I’m really, really very angry about the treatment of RNLI charity volunteers and staff who’ve been attacked online.
“They’ve had their names and their photographs published for doing the life-saving work that they’re doing. We’ve also seen this happening to lots of other people as well.
“We had police officers, journalists, whose addresses were published recently online, and we’ve seen a huge campaign by the trade union USDAW because shop workers are now routinely being filmed and harassed in their places of work, and then having that footage posted online.
“I was astonished when I took on responsibility for this a few weeks ago to find that publishing people’s addresses online is not automatically a criminal offence and isn’t automatically taken down by the social media companies. Some are very good, some are very poor.”
Ms Nandy directly criticised X, formerly Twitter, and warned social media firms she will “act” on doxxing. She said: “I had a roundtable with them yesterday.
“X didn’t even bother to turn up, which I think tells you everything about their disgraceful attitude to their own moral and social obligations. And the government is determined to act.
“We’re going to tighten up the law. So if you think that it’s acceptable to go around harassing people online, publishing their addresses and other personal attributes, you’ve got another thing coming because the Government is going to act in this space.”
Last week, Andy Burnham criticised the “appalling” abuse directed at RNLI volunteers by anti-migrant protesters. His warning came after the Mirror revealed that two RNLI heroes were named and pictured online by Portsmouth protestors who condemned them as “collaborators” and “traitors”.
The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said: “Directing abuse at people who dedicate themselves to helping others is appalling. We won’t tolerate social media being a haven for this kind of behaviour. We support the police in investigating any threatening or unlawful behaviour and taking action where appropriate.”
X has been contacted for comment.
