As he tries to quell violent outbreaks across Britain, Prime Minister Keir Starmer is also embroiled in a war of words with Elon Musk, the tech billionaire and owner of the social media platform X.
Over the past few days, Mr. Musk has posted incendiary comments and shared memes and videos about the riots in Britain to his more than 193 million followers on X. Violence has flared in towns across the country over the past week amid widespread misinformation after a deadly stabbing attack in Southport, England, last week, in which three girls died at a dance class.
“Civil war is inevitable,” Mr. Musk posted on X on Sunday in response to a video that showed small fires in the streets, fireworks being set off and rioters confronting the police.
A spokesperson for Mr. Starmer said there was “no justification” for Mr. Musk’s comments. Since then, Mr. Musk has continued to post comments directed at the prime minister.
“Why aren’t all communities protected in Britain? @Keir_Starmer,” Mr. Musk posted on Tuesday. He added “#TwoTierKeir,” a reference to the far-right claim that there is a policy of two-tier policing in which far-right groups are policed more heavily than others. (A government minister on Wednesday rejected those accusations.)
On Tuesday, Mr. Musk replied to a post on X that said “Britain is turning into the Soviet Union,” adding, “Seriously.”
The comments fit a wider effort by Mr. Musk to influence politics in several countries, including the United States, Italy and Venezuela, and at times sow discontent. Mr. Musk has become a loud critic of immigration policies in particular. He has become popular among far-right figures and has helped expand some of their platforms by reinstating the accounts of people previously banned on Twitter, as X was known before Mr. Musk bought it, including Tommy Robinson, an anti-Islam agitator who founded the English Defense League.
On Monday, Mr. Starmer posted on X, “We will not tolerate attacks on mosques or on Muslim communities,” after holding an emergency response meeting to the violent disorder over the weekend. Mr. Musk replied to the video, “Shouldn’t you be concerned about attacks on *all* communities?”
Some British lawmakers have said they would consider calling Mr. Musk in front of a parliamentary committee to answer questions about X’s role in the violence. After the stabbing, misinformation quickly spread online claiming the attacker was an asylum seeker from Syria and arrived in Britain illegally by boat. Despite police and government officials pushing back against false claims and the decision to release the name of the 17-year-old suspect in the attack, who was born in Wales, violence has still taken place, fueled by online comments.
Britain passed a sweeping online safety law last year, but like other countries, it has struggled to effectively hold social media companies to account for misinformation and other inflammatory content on their platforms. European Union laws require platforms to have robust content moderation, but tech companies’ internal policies and enforcement are patchy.
In the past week, rioters started fires at hotels that were housing asylum seekers, looted stores and targeted immigrant-owned businesses. More than 400 arrests have been made. On Wednesday, the police were preparing for possible riots amid reports that more than 30 gatherings had been planned.
Mr. Starmer has previously called out social media platforms for their role in fomenting violence and warned the executives of the companies, without naming any, that crimes committed online will also be subject to legal action.
“Let me also say to large social media companies and those who run them: Violent disorder, clearly whipped up online, that is also a crime, it’s happening on your premises, and the law must be upheld everywhere,” Mr. Starmer said in a televised speech last week.
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