{"id":693759,"date":"2026-01-13T19:22:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-13T19:22:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/693759\/"},"modified":"2026-01-13T19:22:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-13T19:22:10","slug":"sport-england-suspends-x-social-media-account-and-takes-aim-at-elon-musk-sport-politics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/693759\/","title":{"rendered":"Sport England suspends X social media account and takes aim at Elon Musk | Sport politics"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Sport England has revealed that it has suspended its account on X, because the social media platform \u201cincreasingly promotes and monetises an environment that is hostile to women and girls\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">In a blog post explaining the decision Sport England\u2019s chair, Chris Boardman, criticised X\u2019s AI platform tool, Grok, saying it had \u201ccontributed to the amplification of and worse, normalisation of, misogynistic content\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">\u201cThat runs directly counter to what we stand for,\u201d said Boardman, who sits at the heart of a funding agency that invests \u00a3250m a year in grassroots sport and community projects. Boardman also pointed to the fact members of the England women\u2019s football squad were attacked on the platform last summer as influencing the decision.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">\u201cSport should always be a place where everyone feels safe and welcome,\u201d he said. \u201cThose are values worth standing up for. When a space undermines that, walking away is not weakness \u2013 it is a responsibility. Last summer we urged action on the horrific sexist and racist abuse being levelled at our Lionesses. Alongside these actions, we have to make choices about where we show up as an organisation and where we don\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">However, Boardman also took a broader aim at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/technology\/elon-musk\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" data-component=\"auto-linked-tag\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Elon Musk<\/a>, saying that the tone on the platform had also become worse in recent years. \u201cX has become a less effective way for us to do our job,\u201d he said. \u201cThe tone of conversation has grown increasingly divisive and reductive.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">\u201cWe recognise that some people and organisations believe staying in difficult spaces and challenging harmful narratives from within is the right approach. For Sport England, however, stepping away from X is the right decision. Tech companies \u2013 particularly X \u2013 must take greater responsibility for the environments they create and the content they amplify.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">This week Ofcom <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/technology\/2026\/jan\/12\/ofcom-investigating-x-outcry-sexualised-ai-images-grok-elon-musk\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">launched an investigation into X<\/a> over concerns that Grok is being used to create sexualised images. The government has also said it will bring into force a law that will make it illegal to create such non-consensual images.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sport England has revealed that it has suspended its account on X, because the social media platform \u201cincreasingly&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":693760,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[51,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-693759","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-uk","10":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115889421908714347","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/693759","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=693759"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/693759\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/693760"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=693759"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=693759"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=693759"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}