Billionaire Elon Musk has been criticised by politicians from all walks of life after a war of words with Prime Minister Keir Starmer over the unrest in the UK.
Elon Musk has been branded “highly irresponsible” for stoking tensions in the UK on his social media page X/Twitter.
The billionaire, who bought a tech company in 2022, clashed with Prime Minister Keir Starmer over the unrest in our country. Musk published a flurry of posts about the crisis, sharing videos from right-wing influencers and memes about the UK with his 193 million followers.
He branded the Prime Minister a “two-tiered policy”, referring to allegations of a “two-tiered police” in the UK, which the Prime Minister denied. Last night MPs said Musk could be summoned to Parliament to be questioned about his comments and the role of his platform in inciting violence in the UK.
Asked after Tuesday evening’s Cobra Crisis meeting if he was concerned about Musk’s influence, Starmer insisted he was “committed” to keeping British communities safe. The prime minister spoke of meeting with police officers in Southport, who were first to respond to a “horrific attack” and then beaten in the streets by far-right thugs. “I think it’s really important that we all support the police in their work,” he said.
The row began on Monday when the Tesla boss claimed a “civil war” in Britain was “inevitable” after far-right thugs sparked riots across the UK. Downing Street publicly rejected the claim. Starmer’s official spokesman said there was “no justification for such comments.”
Musk, who is always selecting new videos to amplify, sharpened his comments about the unrest on Tuesday with X. He reposted a clip of right-wing social media influencer Andy Go, a regular on Fox News, showing a group of Asian men meeting in Birmingham on Monday.
The group of masked men who chased off a Sky reporter who had made abusive remarks gathered following reports that a right-wing extremist rally had been planned in the area but never took place. Tagging Starmer, Musk wrote: “Why aren’t all communities protected in the UK?”,
The Tesla billionaire also posted a video that appeared to show police officers arresting a man for “improper use of an electronic communications network”, with the caption: “Arrested for Facebook comments! Is this Britain or the USSR?” He posted other memes,
including a cartoon of Family Guy’s Peter Griffin in the electric chair, with the caption: “In response to Facebook comments in support of the UK government, in 2023 ‘government promises’ to punish armchair thugs who incite violence on social media.
Justice Minister Heidi Alexander criticized Musk’s comments that a civil war in the UK was inevitable. She said it was “grossly irresponsible” and “everyone should be calm.” “Using a term like ‘civil war’ is never acceptable,” she said. “We’re seeing police officers being seriously injured and buildings being set on fire, and that’s why I truly believe that anyone who has a platform should use their power responsibly.” Bloomberg, with $228 billion as the world’s richest person. He is CEO of electric car maker Tesla and rocket and spacecraft maker SpaceX, and head of X, the company formerly known as Twitter but renamed by him.
Musk has been increasingly involved in politics, openly supporting Donald Trump in the US presidential campaign. Controversial figures such as Tommy Robinson and Andrew Tate, who had previously been banned from X, were allowed back when Musk took over the platform.
Last month, there was a public spat between Musk and his transgender daughter after he said he had lost a “son” and described the child as “died from the Wake Up Mind Virus.” Vivienne Jenna Wilson (20), who said she hadn’t spoken to her father for about four years, told NBC, “He gets angry easily. He’s insensitive and a narcissist.”
Rishi Sunak heaped praise on Musk at a press conference following the conclusion of the two-day AI Safety Summit in the UK last November. During a fireside chat in London, the former prime minister joked about tech geeks and the risks of artificial intelligence.
Labour MPs Chi Onwurah and Dawn Butler, who are running for chair of Parliament’s Science, Innovation and Technology Committee, will seek to summon Musk before MPs, Politico reported. Ms Onwurah will publicly confront the tech chief, asking: “Shouldn’t we be concerned about X’s role in spreading misinformation and X’s responsibility not to incite racial hatred?”
Between 2018 and 2022, what matters to Elon Musk is not what he said, but how he changed X’s algorithm. The platform has become a vehicle for foreign adversaries and the far right to bring lies and hatred into people’s living rooms across the UK. When anyone exercises this power, there must be corresponding accountability.
Georgie Laming, campaign director for HOPE not Hate, said: “Elon Musk has repeatedly given a platform to far-right groups, both through his ownership of the platform and through his own Twitter account. Musk has shared content from far-right party Britain First and has re-allowed notorious far-right creators like Tommy Robinson access to the platform despite previous bans. Last week’s riot in Southport was in part contributed to far-right misinformation spread by Tait and Robinson on Twitter.”
Liberal Democrat MP Tim Farron responded to Musk’s question to Starmer about whether he should be concerned about the attacks on “all communities”. “Elon, forgive me, but there is no excuse for behaving like a total idiot on this matter,” he said. “I’m white and a Christian.” Nobody is going to throw bricks at my church or tell me to go back where I came from. I’m worried about attacks on communities that are actually being attacked.”
Asked if Musk was right to say Britain was on the brink of civil war, Farage refused to reject the characterisation outright. “I pray he’s wrong,” he said.
The Reform UK leader was criticised by politicians on Monday, including former home secretary Dame Priti Patel, for making the case for a “two-tier system” by trying to compare the riots to Black Lives Matter police action. Starmer denied claims that last week’s riots received harsher police enforcement than other recent riots and protests.
Pat de Brun, deputy director of technology at Amnesty International, said the algorithms at the core of social media platforms are a key driver of the current spread of disinformation. “In the UK, the widespread racist violence in our streets follows a period in which politicians and others have intensively scapegoated refugees and migrants through dangerous rhetoric and policies,” she said.
“In this context, social media algorithms have actively reinforced and escalated xenophobic rhetoric. These harmful algorithms are deliberately designed to prioritise engagement over everything else. As a result, they act as arsonists, stoking division, disinformation and hatred.”
On Monday, Technology Minister Peter Kyle said he would meet with representatives from TikTok, Facebook parent company Meta and Google to help stop the spread. About hateful misinformation and hate speech.”
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said the Government would not tolerate “armchair violence” and that social media must hold itself to account for spreading the misinformation online that has fuelled much of the unrest.
