Elon Musk ramped up his war of words against Sir Keir Starmer after being slammed by a minister for “pretty deplorable” and “deeply irresponsible” comments on Twitter about the riots in Britain.
Courts minister Heidi Alexander warned social media bosses that they had a “moral responsibility to stop propagating and disseminating misleading and frankly inflammatory material on their platforms”.
She also stressed that stopping offences being committed on social media was now “almost the new frontier in the fight against crime”.
Responding to a post on the social media site X, formerly Twitter, that blamed mass migration and open borders for the disorder in Britain, Musk had written: "Civil war is inevitable."
Ms Alexander, a former Deputy Mayor of London, on Tuesday tore into Twitter chief Musk.
She told LBC Radio: “Those comments were totally unjustifiable.
“We have got police officers being seriously injured on our streets, people are looting buildings, they are setting buildings alight.
“For someone who has a big platform, a large following, to be exercising that power in such an irresponsible way, I think is actually pretty unconscionable.
“Everyone at the moment should be calling for calm.”
Speaking on BBC Breakfast, she condemned his comments as “pretty deplorable”.
Strongly condemining the riots which have spread across the UK, the Prime Minister messaged: “This is not protest, it is pure violence.
“We will have a standing army of public duty officers.
“We will ramp up criminal justice.
“We will apply criminal law online as well as offline.
“We will not tolerate attacks on mosques or on Muslim communities.”
Musk responded on Twitter: “Shouldn’t you be concerned about attacks on *all* communities?”
Asked about his interventions, Ms Alexander told Times Radio: “I agree with what the spokesperson on behalf of the Prime Minister was saying yesterday, I do think these comments are unjustifiable.
“If you have got a platform, a large social media platform, then you have also got a responsibility.
“I think, it is deeply irresponsible.
“Everyone should be appealing for calm.”
She added: “Use of language such as civil war is in no way acceptable.
“We are seeing police officers being seriously injured, buildings set alight, so I really do think that everyone who has a platform should be exercising their power responsibly.”
But Musk went on the offensive a few hours later tweeting a video reportedly of protestors from the Muslim community staging a counter-demonstration in Birmingham against Far-right thugs, where some violence erupted.
He messaged: “Why aren’t all communities protected in Britain? @Keir_Starmer”
Why aren’t all communities protected in Britain? @Keir_Starmer https://t.co/gldyguysNe
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 6, 2024
He also questioned if it was "Britain or the Soviet Union" after commenting on a video said to show a man being arrested over comments he made on Facebook.He retweeted the video, saying: "Arrested for making comments on Facebook!
"Is this Britain or the Soviet Union? Is this accurate @Community Notes."
Community Notes is X's own fact checking resource.
In the video, the man is arrested on suspicion of improper use of the electronics communications network.
Pressed on how Twitter or other social media platforms could be stopped more generally from spreading misinformation, Ms Alexander stressed: “Some of the social media platforms have taken quite welcome action in some of the quite robust automated responses that they got to taking down some of this false information.
“But there is definitely more that social media companies could and should be doing.
“They should not be waiting for all the provisions of the Online Safety Act to come into force.”
She continued: “I think they have got a moral responsibility to stop propagating and disseminating misleading and frankly inflammatory material on their platforms.”
“It’s a huge challenge and the technology evolves by the day, by the week, and so our legislation and framework for dealing with this is going to have to be reviewed as we go forward.
“This is almost the new frontier in the fight against crime.”
