- Ecuador vice president says Noboa seeking her 'banishment'
- Leicester boss Van Nistelrooy aware of 'bigger picture' as Liverpool await
- Syria authorities say armed groups have agreed to disband
- Maresca expects Man City to be in title hunt as he downplays Chelsea's chancs
- South Africa opt for all-pace attack against Pakistan
- Guardiola adamant Man City slump not all about Haaland
- Global stocks mostly higher in thin pre-Christmas trade
- Bethlehem marks sombre Christmas under shadow of war
- 11 killed in blast at Turkey explosives plant
- Indonesia considers parole for ex-terror chiefs: official
- Postecoglou says Spurs 'need to reinforce' in transfer window
- Le Pen says days of new French govt numbered
- Villa boss Emery set for 'very difficult' clash with Newcastle
- Investors swoop in to save German flying taxi startup
- How Finnish youth learn to spot disinformation
- 12 killed in blast at Turkey explosives plant
- Panama leaders past and present reject Trump's threat of Canal takeover
- Hong Kong police issue fresh bounties for activists overseas
- Saving the mysterious African manatee at Cameroon hotspot
- India consider second spinner for Boxing Day Test
- London wall illuminates Covid's enduring pain at Christmas
- Poyet appointed manager at South Korea's Jeonbuk
- South Korea's opposition vows to impeach acting president
- The tsunami detection buoys safeguarding lives in Thailand
- Teen Konstas to open for Australia in Boxing Day India Test
- Asian stocks mostly up after US tech rally
- US panel could not reach consensus on US-Japan steel deal: Nippon
- The real-life violence that inspired South Korea's 'Squid Game'
- Blogs to Bluesky: social media shifts responses after 2004 tsunami
- Tennis power couple de Minaur and Boulter get engaged
- Supermaxi yachts eye record in gruelling Sydney-Hobart race
- Hawaii's Kilauea volcano erupts, spewing columns of lava
- El Salvador Congress votes to end ban on metal mining
- Five things to know about Panama Canal, in Trump's sights
- NBA fines Minnesota guard Edwards $75,000 for outburst
- Haitians massacred for practicing voodoo were abducted, hacked to death: UN
- Inter beat Como to keep in touch with leaders Atalanta
- Man Utd boss Amorim questions 'choices' of Rashford's entourage
- Trump's TikTok love raises stakes in battle over app's fate
- Is he serious? Trump stirs unease with Panama, Greenland ploys
- England captain Stokes to miss three months with torn hamstring
- Support grows for Blake Lively over smear campaign claim
- Canada records 50,000 opioid overdose deaths since 2016
- Jordanian, Qatari envoys hold talks with Syria's new leader
- France's second woman premier makes surprise frontline return
- France's Macron announces fourth government of the year
- Netanyahu tells Israel parliament 'some progress' on Gaza hostage deal
- Guatemalan authorities recover minors taken by sect members
- Germany's far-right AfD holds march after Christmas market attack
- Serie A basement club Monza fire coach Nesta
RYCEF | -0.28% | 7.25 | $ | |
RBGPF | -1.17% | 59.8 | $ | |
CMSC | -0.98% | 23.67 | $ | |
BCC | 0.61% | 122.985 | $ | |
GSK | -0.1% | 34.025 | $ | |
SCS | 0.38% | 11.695 | $ | |
RIO | -0.13% | 59.155 | $ | |
AZN | -0.42% | 66.35 | $ | |
VOD | 0.77% | 8.435 | $ | |
JRI | 0.08% | 12.11 | $ | |
RELX | 0.24% | 45.7 | $ | |
CMSD | -0.64% | 23.4 | $ | |
BTI | -0.07% | 36.195 | $ | |
BCE | 0.31% | 22.91 | $ | |
NGG | -0.49% | 58.73 | $ | |
BP | 0.16% | 28.795 | $ |
Musk, UK govt spar over far-right riots
As far-right riots grip England, provocative tech billionaire Elon Musk is posting sympathy for the anti-immigration demonstrators, angering the UK government, which blames social media companies for fuelling the unrest.
The week-long disturbances that have spread to numerous cities are linked to misinformation online that the suspect behind a mass stabbing that killed three girls was a Muslim asylum seeker.
A war of words between X owner Musk and Prime Minister Keir Starmer's recently elected Labour administration began on Sunday when Musk tweeted that a British "civil war is inevitable".
Starmer's spokesperson said Monday there was "no justification" for the comment, only for Musk to respond with a stream of posts Tuesday questioning the British leader's response to the riots.
Musk also referenced a dubious claim about policing that has been widely denied by lawmakers from across the political spectrum and police chiefs.
"Use of language such as a 'civil war' is in no way acceptable," justice minister Heidi Alexander said on Tuesday, branding Musk's comments "deeply irresponsible".
"We are seeing police officers being seriously injured, buildings set alight, and so I really do think that everyone who has a platform should be exercising their power responsibly," she told Times Radio.
The riots follow the murder on Monday last week of three girls aged between six and nine at a Taylor Swift-themed dance party in Southport, northwest England.
The suspect is 17-year-old Axel Rudakubana, who was born in Britain, reportedly to immigrants from Rwanda.
He did not come to the UK on an illegal small boat crossing as false rumours on social media have suggested.
Far-right protesters -- sometimes masked and brandishing British flags -- have clashed with police, torched cars, and attacked mosques and hotels housing asylum seekers, leading the government to provide emergency security to Islamic centres.
In a post on X on Monday, Starmer vowed to apply "criminal law online as well as offline", adding that "we will not tolerate attacks on mosques or on Muslim communities".
Musk replied: "Shouldn't you be concerned about attacks on *all* communities?"
His original "civil war" post came in reply to another X user blaming the riots on "the effects of mass migration and open borders".
The comment was "not surprising for Elon Musk, who's been also feeding some of the conspiracy myths and some of the hateful rhetoric" surrounding the riots, said Julia Ebner, Senior Researcher at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue who specialises in far-right extremism.
In a post on Tuesday, Musk retweeted a video claiming to show Muslims attacking a pub, repeating "why aren't all communities protected in Britain?" and tagging Starmer.
He also added a hashtag "TwoTierKeir", referring to allegations by those on the right of "two-tier policing" in which far-right agitators are punished more harshly.
Hard-right Reform UK leader Nigel Farage said on Monday that "since the soft policing of the Black Lives Matter protests, the impression of two-tier policing has become widespread".
The BLM protests were largely peaceful, but pockets of disorder were heavily cracked down on by police. So were previous riots largely involving minority ethnic groups in 2011 when Starmer himself was chief state prosecutor.
- 'Nowhere to hide' -
In Musk's latest series of posts, he claimed the UK was censoring online content, saying "is this Britain or the Soviet Union?"
Influencer Andrew Tate and far-right, anti-Islam figurehead Tommy Robinson are among people who promoted false claims about Rudakubana on X.
EuropeInvasion, an anti-immigrant X account with hundreds of thousands of followers, still has a post up falsely claiming that the attacker was "confirmed to be Muslim".
One man charged with intending to stir up racial hatred related to alleged posts on Facebook in connection to the riots was due to appear in a court on Tuesday.
"Online comments can have a huge influence on offline behaviour," Ebner said.
Technology minister Peter Kyle met representatives from TikTok, Meta, Google, and X on Monday and warned that social media users spreading misinformation will have "nowhere to hide".
Musk –- who has reduced content moderation on Twitter since taking over in 2022 –- regularly voices support for right-wing causes and politicians like ex-US president Donald Trump and Argentina President Javier Milei.
He has reinstated several far-right accounts, including that of former English Defence League leader Robinson who had been banned since 2018.
L.Mesquita--PC