Elon Musk Pushes UK Far-Right Party Leader’s Fake ‘Detainment Camps’ News Story

Elon Musk fell for disinformation on his own platform Thursday when he shared a fake news story posted by a far-right UK party leader claiming that anti-immigration rioters in England were to be sent to “emergency detention camps” in the Falkland Islands.

Riots and protests erupted across the country on a national scale in the aftermath of a knife attack in Southport on July 29, where three young girls were killed during a children’s Taylor Swift-themed dance class. The violent protests, fueled by anti-immigration sentiment, spread rapidly, with mosques and hotels housing asylum seekers targeted.

The fake article, designed to look like it was from The Telegraph, falsely claimed that UK Labour leader Keir Starmer was considering using camps in the Falklands to detain those arrested at the protests due to overcrowded British prisons. The post by Ashlea Simon, co-leader of the far-right group Britain First, was shared by Musk.

After 30 minutes Musk deleted his tweet but by then it had already been viewed nearly two million times.

A spokesperson for the Telegraph said: “This is a fabricated headline for an article that does not exist. We notified relevant platforms and requested that the post be taken down.”

Musk has not issued a further statement after sharing the disinformation.

Since rioting broke out, Musk has posted content critical of the UK government and law enforcement’s response.

He declared via X on Sunday that “civil war is inevitable” and accused the police of a “one-sided” approach in handling the situation. Courts minister Heidi Alexander criticized Musk’s take as “deplorable.”

The gaffe comes as the role content on X and other social media platforms in inciting the violence becomes a central focus for British lawmakers. Politicians say false claims circulated on social media in the immediate aftermath of the knife attack, claiming that the Welsh-born knife attacker was an asylum seeker who had just arrived in the UK.

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