Social Media: Use of X by Government Departments

Baroness Deech Excerpts

Tuesday 23rd June 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent (Lab)]

The noble Viscount is absolutely right. When Iran shut down its internet to try to stop proper, fair protests in that country, we saw how many cybernats and other accounts went down in the UK for people who were seeking to sow division and separation in the United Kingdom. We know that bad faith actors try every day to undermine the very values for which we stand. That is why we have the Government’s media literacy action plan and why we are working at every level of society to highlight these issues. It is also, from my perspective, one of the reasons why we need to work every day to make things clear and to ensure that platforms take their responsibilities seriously.

[Baroness Deech (CB)]

My Lords, disinformation and propaganda go back hundreds of years. There are some good things to be said about X, but the antidote is as follows. It is very much to be regretted that young people no longer read newspapers. I call on the Department for Education to fund a selection of newspapers in every single secondary school in the country; that is the only way to get young people interested in serious, proper news.

[Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent (Lab)]

The noble Baroness makes a really interesting point. She is right that misinformation, disinformation, propaganda and counterpropaganda are not new. Last week, my husband wrote an article for his local paper in which he reminded everybody that there is one day of the year when we look at media with a level of cynicism: 1 April. We need to be doing that every single day of the year. The noble Baroness makes an important point, which I will look at. A DCMS consultation is currently out; I will ensure that her point is fed in.