Official U.K. government X account has not been suspended for 'threatening citizens'

What is the claim?

Multiple Facebook users from the U.K. have posted a screenshot of a suspended X (formerly Twitter) account, with the "@ukgov" username, claiming that it shows the official X account of the U.K. government has "been suspended for threatening British citizens." 

"The official U.K. government account @ukgov just got suspended for threatening their own citizens. Thank you, @elonmusk!" one such Facebook post read. Similar posts were also seen on X. Archived versions of some such posts are here, here, here, and here. 

Screenshots of posts sharing captures of a suspended X account falsely claiming it shows the official X account of the U.K. government. (Source: Screenshot/X/Facebook/Modified by Logically Facts)

These posts surfaced soon after multiple people were jailed for encouraging unrest on social media. The Crown Prosecution Service, which is responsible for criminal prosecutions in England and Wales, went on to post warnings on social media about prosecutions and to think before posting. 

However, the "suspended" account is unrelated to the U.K. government. 

What did we find?

We searched for the X account with the username "@ukgov," which is in the viral screenshots alongside the claim that it belongs to the U.K. government. We found that X has indeed suspended the account. 

However, though this now-suspended account closely resembles the @GOVUK account in terms of usernames, they are different. The latter is active on the platform with around 23,000 posts and 1.9 million followers, and the bio identifies the account as the "Official X channel of the GOV.UK website." The last post from the account was from August 13, at the time of writing this story.

Comparison between screenshots of the suspended account and the U.K. government website official account. (Source: Screenshots/X/Modified by Logically Facts)

Further, the official account of the U.K. government website has the grey verified badge, which clearly states that the account has been verified since 2012 "because it is a government or multilateral organization account." The other account carries no such badge.

Screenshots showing the user IDs of the suspended X account and the U.K Government Account. (Source: Screenshots/X/Modified by Logically Facts)

We also checked the user ID, a unique numeric code assigned to each account, of both accounts and found that they are separate and unrelated. 17481977 is the unique numeric code for the @GOVUK account, while the code is 35165295 for the suspended account @ukgov. 

What about the suspended account?

Next, we looked for archives of the X account and found the earliest archived version from 2010 that shows its bio reading, "What the UK Gov should be doing." This shows that the user had not claimed to be the official account of the U.K. government at that time.

Screenshot of an archive of the X account in question. (Source: Screenshot/X/Modified by Logically Facts)

We could also see that the user had uploaded some posts on September 6, 2010, tagging an account called "Bella Bathrooms," which is a bathroom fittings supplier from the U.K. It is highly unlikely that such messages would be posted from an official social media account connected with the U.K. government. We also saw some now-defunct eBay links posted from the same account around the same time.

Another July 4, 2020, archive showed the particular X account in a "suspended" state. This confirmed that the account has been suspended on X since at least 2020. Archives from 2023 and 2024 continued to show the particular account in the suspended state. 

We found social media posts clearly confusing between the two X usernames "@GOVUK" and "@ukgov." Users also shared a screenshot (archived here) of a report by the genuine U.K. government's account, @GOVUK, and wondered whether it was why the account @ukgov being suspended. 

However, while the former is the authentic and official account of the U.K. government website, the latter is the suspended account in question, which does not belong to the U.K. government.

X, U.K. government clarify

Logically Facts contacted X regarding the issue and was told that the account is not an official account connected with the U.K. government. The press team at X also directed us to the actual official account and referred us to an X post from August 9, 2024, by the official @Safety (archived here) account that addressed the suspended account as "That isn't the official UK Government account - @GovUK is."

A press officer from the U.K. Cabinet Office also directed us to the official X account for the U.K. Prime Minister's office and informed us that 'https://x.com/GOVUK' is the official account for the U.K. government website. They added that individual departments generally have social media accounts, with a number across government.

The verdict

The viral screenshot doesn't show the official X account of the U.K. government, as claimed, but an unrelated, separate account. U.K. government representatives confirmed that "@GOVUK" is the username of the official X account of the U.K. government website, which is functional and has not been suspended.