Social media has played an important role big roll in fueling the anti-immigration riots swallow up towns and cities in the United Kingdom.
And troublemaker Elon Musk isn’t standing on the sidelines.
The CEO of Tesla and owner of X Posted on Sunday’s platform that “civil war is inevitable” in response to a post that attributed the violent demonstrations to the effects of “mass migration and open borders.”
On Monday, a spokesperson for the British prime minister responded to Musk’s comment, telling reporters that “there is no justification for that.”
Musk’s decision to ramp up anti-immigration rhetoric underscores the role that false information spread online plays in fueling real-world violence. It’s an issue of growing concern to the British government, which on Tuesday vowed to bring those responsible for the riots, and their online supporters, to justice.
In recent days, rioters have damaged public buildings, set fire to cars and thrown stones at police officers. They have also set fire to two Holiday Inn hotels in northern and central England, believed to be housing asylum seekers awaiting a decision on their claims. Hundreds of people have been arrested.
The riots broke out last week after far-right groups claimed on social media that the man accused of carrying out a horrific stabbing attack in which three children were killed, was a Muslim asylum seeker. The online disinformation campaign fueled outrage directed at immigrants.
The suspect, now known as 17-year-old Axel Rudakubana, was born in the United Kingdom, according to police.
But false claims about the attack – the worst mass stabbing targeting children in Britain in decades, and possibly ever – spread rapidly online and continued to be viewed even after police set the record straight.
According to the think tank Institute for Strategic Dialogue, by mid-afternoon on July 30, the day after the attack, the fake name had been mentioned more than 30,000 times on X, from more than 18,000 unique accounts.
“The fake name attributed to the attacker was distributed organically, but also recommended to users by platform algorithms,” the ISD said in a statement.
“Platforms thereby spread misinformation to users who might otherwise not have been exposed, even after law enforcement confirmed the name was fake.”
The UK government said bots linked to state-backed actors may have amplified the spread of false information.
Tackling ‘online crime’
While social media companies have their own internal policies to prohibit hate speech and incitement to violence on their platforms, they have long struggled to implement them.
“The problem has always been enforcement,” Isabelle Frances-Wright, a technology expert at the IDS, told CNN. “Particularly in times of crisis and conflict, when there’s a huge swell of content, at which point their already fragile content moderation systems seem to fall apart.”
It doesn’t help that Musk himself has promoted inflammatory content on X, a platform that was accused by European regulators last month of misleading and deceiving usersIf he can do it, why can’t others?
For example, shortly after the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7 and the subsequent outbreak of war in Gaza, the self-proclaimed “free speech absolutist” publicly endorsed an anti-Semitic conspiracy theory popular among white supremacists. Musk later apologized for what he called his “dumbest” social media post ever.
Under his tenure, X has also relaxed its content moderation policies and reinstated several previously blocked accounts. That includes far-right figureheads like Tommy Robinson, who has posted a stream of posts fueling protests in the UK and criticizing violent attacks.
The British government this week pledged to crack down on “online crime” and urged social media companies to take action against the spread of false information.
“Social media has fuelled missiles… not just through disinformation but also through encouraging violence,” British Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said on Monday.
“It’s a total disgrace and we can’t continue with this,” she told BBC Radio 5 Live in an interview, adding that police will tackle both “online crime” and “offline crime”.
At a cabinet meeting on Tuesday, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said those involved in the riots — in person and online — “will face the full force of the law and be subject to swift justice,” according to a report seen by CNN.
At the same meeting, Peter Kyle, the science and technology minister, said he had made it clear in discussions with social media companies that they have a responsibility to “stop the spread of hateful disinformation and incitement.”
X, Facebook owner Meta and TikTok did not respond to CNN’s requests for comment.
It is unclear whether the British government has the resources to hold social media platforms to account for their role in the riots.
The United Kingdom Online Safety Actwhich was adopted last year, creates new obligations for social media platforms, including the obligation to remove illegal content when it appears.
It also makes it a criminal offence to post false information online with the intention of “causing non-trivial harm”.
However, the legislation is not yet in force because the regulator responsible for enforcing it, Ofcom, is still consulting on codes of practice and guidance.
In a rack On Monday, Ofcom said tackling illegal online content was a “key priority”. The watchdog expects the first set of duties under the new law, relating to illegal content, to come into force “around the end of this year”. Once the law is in place, Ofcom will be able to fine companies up to 10% of their global turnover.
“As part of our wider engagement with technology platforms, we are already working to understand what actions they are taking to prepare for these new rules,” Ofcom added.
Rob Picheta and Lauren Kent contributed reporting.
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