Elon Musk attended the “Exploring New Areas of Innovation: A Dialogue between Mark Reed and Elon Musk” session on the third day of the 2024 Cannes International Creativity Festival held in Cannes, France on June 19, 2024.
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LONDON – British government strikes back Musk It comes after the billionaire made controversial comments about riots across the country fueled by far-right and anti-immigration sentiment.
Violent rioting took place on the streets of many towns and cities last week, including Liverpool and Manchester, with far-right groups clashing with police and rival demonstrators.
On Sunday, Musk responded to a post about the unrest on X, a social media platform he owns, saying: “Civil war is inevitable.”
His comments were later condemned by British Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
Responding to a reporter’s question on Monday whether Starmer agreed with Musk’s tweet, the Prime Minister’s spokesman said: “There is no justification for such comments.”
Starmer’s official spokesman said: “What we are seeing in this country is organized and illegal brutality and this type of behavior has no place on our streets or online.”
The spokesman added: “We are talking about a small number of thugs who do not speak for Britain, and in response we have seen some of the best people in our communities come out to clean up the chaos and destruction. “You can tell the Prime Minister is not agree with these views.”
Responding to Musk’s comments on Tuesday, UK Courts Minister Heidi Alexander said anyone with a platform on social media should “act responsibly” on that platform, adding that language linking the riots to civil war “It makes absolutely no sense.”
UK technology minister Peter Kyle has spoken to social media companies about sharing misinformation related to the riots. riots in ukWhat began as anti-immigration protests gave way to violent riots fueled by online misinformation, with shops and mosques attacked and bricks and petrol bombs hurled.
“I do think social media companies should be doing more,” Alexander told Sky News on Tuesday. “They have an ethical responsibility not to broadcast and disseminate misleading and inflammatory content on their platforms.”
Last year, the UK passed the Online Safety Act, a landmark law aimed at strengthening enforcement against illegal and harmful content online.
However, Ofcom, the regulator responsible for enforcing the law, is unable to take action against social media companies for harmful posts inciting ongoing unrest because the full powers of the bill have not yet come into effect.
Ofcom said it was moving quickly to implement the bill so it could be implemented as quickly as possible.
Musk is also the CEO of an electric car company TeslaAs of Tuesday, there was still commentary on the UK riots. In one post, Musk retweeted a video of a man appearing to be arrested for offensive comments shared on his Facebook page. CNBC could not independently verify the video.
Musk allowed far-right figure Tommy Robinson and controversial internet personality Andrew Tate to return to X after they had previously been suspended from the platform.
Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, was banned from X (formerly Twitter) in March 2018.
—CNBC’s Sam Meredith and Holly Ellyatt contributed to this report
