Does Elon Musk Own Your MP's Megaphone?

TL;DR Tell your MP to get off X, and switch to an open network, supporting UK digital sovereignty.

This morning, the AI Minister said on the Today program (8:10am), we must have the ability to shape AI, otherwise we'll end up being reliant on the US, just as happened with social media.

Does that mean we should forget about UK digital sovereignty for social media?

Already 9 MPs have signed a motion saying no.

For a long time, Twitter (or "X", if you musk) has been framed as the "global town square". The public happily entrusted this responsibility with a rather friendly-looking blue bird. But since the world's first trillionaire (spell-check hasn't caught up yet) took over, trust in the platform has begun to fly away.

For good reason, too.

Since taking over, Elon Musk has:

• Put a price on authenticity, by changing the verified status to a chargeable extra,
• Laid off more than half the company's staff,
• Promoted his own posts in the algorithm,
• Reduced moderation significantly,
• Weakened robustness against organised disinformation,
• Let hate speech back on the platform through reinstating banned accounts,
• Has enabled AI nudification on demand and within threads,
• Ended researcher API access.

Why should our "town square", used for public communication, breaking news, and democratic debate, be owned by the world's richest man?

This "enshittification" led to a massive exodus of users to open networks, such as Bluesky. On open networks, you can move to a better provider, but still view, like, comment on, and share posts from everywhere else. However, X is doubling down on efforts to keep users locked in to the platform through anti-competitive measures, such as ending link previews and banning third-party clients.

The risks of giving Trump a "kill switch" over vital public democratic infrastructure are too high, yet based on my analysis of MPs' contact information, 394 MPs still encourage use of X, with only 50 listing an option for an open network.

Without the Competition and Markets Authority enforcing its new powers, users aren't given the right to easily move to better alternatives. In 2003, Ofcom required phone companies to give you a PAC to keep your old number, letting you switch to another phone company if it's better for you, without losing touch with friends. We don't second guess that I can call your Vodafone number with my Three number. If we take it for granted for phone numbers, email, Bluetooth, WiFi, why can't we have the same for social media?

Until that happens, we should lobby our public officials to free their communications from the control of other countries. Please consider supporting the Open Rights Group's campaign for Government to Move Away from Toxic Social Media, by contacting your MP.