UK Football Policing Unit chief says X is ‘hiding behind’ legal processes and delays

One of the UK’s leading police officers in prosecuting online harms has said the ability to secure identifying information from the social media company X has become “significantly worse” over the past 12 months.

Mike Ankers, the deputy director of the UK Football Policing Unit (UKFPU), said there had been a “massive drop-off” in successful prosecutions in 2025, and that the Elon Musk-owned platform was “hiding behind” legal processes that delayed the identification of users posting hateful content online.

Speaking at a meeting of the All Party Parliamentary Group of MPs on Football, Ankers said that “in terms of social media companies, be absolutely clear, they can do more”.

Ankers last month led the successful prosecution of a man for abusing England’s Jess Carter on TikTok during last summer’s Euros. Speaking about X’s practices, he said, “They’ve never refused [a request for identifying information] but they have a process in place which they hide behind, in terms of the information is in America where they have slightly different laws. We have a six-month window of opportunity to investigate most online abuse. The process, which they ask us to go through, takes about 12 to 18 months. So I won’t always get the information.

“We’ve seen a massive drop-off in terms of successful prosecutions with regards to X because actually we’re not getting the information in time. With regards to TikTok, Snapchat and Meta, every single other provider will share the information, and we will get it in less than a month.”

UKFPU sources said that Ankers was referring to X’s apparent use of a “mutual legal assistance treaty”, which means requests on UK users are referred to courts in the US, where the company is headquartered. According to the sources, this has been a new development over the past year. Asked by MPs if X’s behaviour had changed over time, Ankers replied: “I can only say that the last 12 months have been significantly worse.”

Speaking earlier at the meeting, Anna Zizola, EU Public Policy affairs lead at X, said the company had always complied with requests for information from the police. “We have nothing to gain from having abusers on the platform”, she said. “In the first half of 2025, we actioned over 1.8m pieces of content breaching our abuse and harassment rules globally. We do take it seriously.”

Among the range of experts who appeared in front of the APPG, there was a consensus that more could be done inside football to act against harms and that the lack of a joined-up approach was limiting the ability to effect change, with leagues, clubs and governing bodies all having their own policies for dealing with online abuse. Jodie Luker, an online safety analyst, said there should be a unified approach. “The FA needs to take charge”, she said. “It needs an overarching systemic approach across all levels for men and women.”