Sport England has suspended its activity on Elon Musk’s social media platform X, citing an environment that is “hostile to women and girls”.
X, formerly known as Twitter, has been at the centre of a storm relating to its associated Grok AI and claims that it allows users to generate sexually explicit images, including of children.
Sport England chair Chris Broadman said X has been home to “abhorrent outputs” which have “contributed to the amplification of and worse, normalisation of, misogynistic content”.
“Sport should always be a place where everyone feels safe and welcome,” Boardman added.
“Those are values worth standing up for. When a space undermines that, walking away is not weakness – 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’t.”
Sport England leaves X over Grok
Sport England stated on 8 January that it would be “suspending indefinitely” its X account and will now post on Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram and BlueSky.
Boardman’s latest comments come amid a government-backed Ofcom investigation into X and Grok over sexualised AI images.
The UK media regulator last year condemned abuse towards England’s Lionesses during their second successive European Championship victory.
Concluded Boardman: “X has become a less effective way for us to do our job. The tone of conversation has grown increasingly divisive and reductive.
“We recognise that some people and organisations believe staying in difficult spaces and challenging harmful narratives from within is the right approach.”
Sport England is a government body which focuses on the growth and development of grassroots sport.
Fellow funding body UK Sport last month signed a contract reported to be worth more than £300,000 to give athletes access to an app that detects and blocks social media abuse.