British Lawmakers Want To Question Elon Musk Over Anti-Immigration Riot Posts

The Daily Wire

British lawmakers have set their sights on Elon Musk , urging the tech mogul to explain his social media platform’s role in spreading incendiary content they say is inciting violent anti-immigration riots in the UK.

The invitation to Musk is fueled by concerns that X has become a lightning rod for controversial and inflammatory rhetoric.

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 that followed, fueled by anti-immigration sentiment, spread rapidly, with mosques and hotels housing asylum seekers targeted.

X became a hotspot for misinformation in the immediate aftermath of the knife attack, with false claims circulating that the attacker was an asylum seeker who had just arrived in the UK. The suspect is a 17-year-old Welsh-born Axel Muganwa Rudakubana .

Musk then became embroiled in a heated exchange with British politicians over the riots, clashing directly with Prime Minister Keir Starmer over the U.K.’s response to the unrest.

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 hit back at Musk’s commentary as “deplorable.”

Speaking to Politico, Labour MPs Chi Onwurah and Dawn Butler , both contenders for the chair of parliament’s science, innovation, and technology committee, said they planned to press Musk on the role of social media platforms in inciting violence.

“The really important points here are the way algorithms of platforms promote and amplify misinformation and the spreading of racial hatred, and how the platforms’ business models rely on that,” Onwurah said.

Meanwhile, businesswoman Bonnie Spofforth , who is believed to be one of the first to spread the false rumor suspect was an asylum seeker who arrived by boat, has expressed deep regret over her actions. Spofforth said she is “mortified” and “literally destroyed” after realizing the widespread impact of the misinformation which spread on multiple platforms online.