X Left Posts Calling UK Politicians Racial Slurs Online Until Reported as Illegal

X refused to remove dozens of posts reported as hate, abuse or harassment in which prominent UK politicians including Kemi Badenoch were racially abused, The Guardian reported. In May, researchers from British Future documented 30 posts from 2026 in which the Conservative party leader was called the N-word. In each case the researchers used X’s “hate, abuse or harassment” reporting option.

X refused to act in the majority of the 30 cases despite repeated requests. The Guardian understands X routinely takes action only when posts are reported as illegal under the UK’s Online Safety Act. In those cases the platform restricts visibility in the UK while leaving the post unrestricted in other jurisdictions.

X eventually restricted visibility for just two of the 30 messages and did so only after Sunder Katwala, director of British Future, emailed the platform stating he should not be expected to fill out an “onerous” form reporting each one as illegal. Avaes Mohammad, a researcher with British Future’s British South Asian Bridgers cohesion project, said many people report racist posts as “hate, abuse or harassment” but X appears not to treat those reports as hate.

“It was only when a post is described as illegal, which they can’t dispute, that they will consider taking it down,” Mohammad said.

On 15 May 2026, the same day Ofcom announced X had made a voluntary commitment to remove illegal content within a 48-hour window, British Future reported 33 uses of the P-word targeting UK public figures. Forty-eight hours later none of the 33 posts had been removed. X eventually restricted 20 of the tweets within the UK after being contacted by Ofcom but took no action against the remaining 13.