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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
Technology
Julian Borger

Elon Musk’s beef with Britain isn’t (only) about politics. It’s about tech regulation

cars and buses drive along a city street
Elon Musk has portrayed Britain as a dystopian ‘police state’ run by a ‘tyrannical government’. Photograph: John Keeble/Getty Images

For those wondering why Elon Musk, the tycoon newly infamous for his stiff-arm salutes, developed a sudden ferocious interest in the UK this month, the answer may lie in an arcane piece of online media legislation working its way gradually towards fruition.

In a ferocious flurry of tweets of his X platform this month, days before formally joining the Trump administration, the world’s richest man portrayed Britain as a dystopian “police state” run by a “tyrannical government” in which young working-class women are routinely kidnapped off the streets by gangs of immigrants.

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