A police force has said it will reduce its use of Elon Musk’s X because of the “quality and quantity of interactions” on the platform.
Derbyshire Constabulary said in a post on the social media site, owned by the US businessman, on Monday that it will only use it to “provide critical updates as a single point of truth when necessary”.
The step back from the platform follows North Wales Police quitting X, formerly known as Twitter, last year, claiming it was “no longer consistent” with the force’s values.
The Guardian also stopped posting on the site in November and said the benefits of posting on X were “outweighed by the negatives” including “disturbing content” such as “far-right conspiracy theories and racism”.
It comes as the Prime Minister hit back at Mr Musk’s suggestion on X that he was “complicit in the crimes” of child sex offenders.
When asked about the Tesla chief executive’s posts about the grooming gangs scandal on Monday, Sir Keir Starmer said: “Those that are spreading lies and misinformation as far and as wide as possible are not interested in victims, they are interested in themselves.”
A spokesman for Derbyshire Constabulary said in a statement: “As a force we periodically review our social media presence to ensure that we are serving our communities in the best way possible.
“During our latest review it was decided, based on the quality and quantity of interactions with our posts, and the limited amount of reporting via this channel, that we would reduce our usage of this platform.
“We will continue to maintain a presence on X to ensure that, in the event of an emergency or major incident, that we are still able to send out critical messages and ensure that information is able to be communicated from the official Derbyshire Constabulary channel.”
The force asked its 125,000 followers on X to use its Facebook or Instagram pages for regular updates.
