Many far-right figures have migrated to Telegram in recent years after being kicked off all other platforms due to Telegram’s notoriously lax approach to censorship. But after Musk’s takeover of Twitter in November 2022, many of these former exiled extremists were welcomed back, including Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, the leader of the now-defunct English Defense League who went by the name Tommy Robinson.
Robinson has repeatedly thanked Musk since he was reinstated last November, calling Musk “the best thing to happen to free speech this century.” In recent days, he has tagged Musk in numerous posts on the platform. Musk responded to one of Robinson’s posts over the weekend.
Analysis by disinformation researcher Mark Owen Jones showed that any such engagement by Musk dramatically increased the number of views, likes, and shares a post received on X — even posts whose engagements had declined dramatically.
“Twitter was a disinformation delivery system,” says Jones, which allowed “anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim speculation to spread.” He cited cuts to the trust and safety team, the blue-label “Pay to play” strategy and the reintroduction of far-right people to the site as “perfect conditions for misinformation and hate speech to flourish.”
“[Musk’s] the comments are completely unacceptable,” Courts Minister Heidi Alexander told the BBC on Tuesday. “For someone who has a big platform, a lot of followers, to exercise that power in such an irresponsible way is pretty unconscionable.” X did not respond to a request for comment.
UK law enforcement is cracking down on those who use X to openly promote violence – in one case by arresting the wife of a local councilor in Northampton who called for hotels housing asylum seekers to be set on fire.
“Mass deportation now, set fire to all the fucking hotels full of bastards for all I care… If that makes me racist so be it,” wrote Lucy Connolly on X. Northamptonshire Police told the BBC the 41-year-old’s carer was arrested on suspicion of inciting racial hatred.
Rioters and violent protesters have also taken over TikTok Live, sharing self-incriminating videos of themselves confronting police or members of the public in cities such as Leeds, Stoke and Hull. Police used the footage to chase down the first wave of demonstrators this week.
“Over 400 people have already been arrested, 100 have been charged, some in relation to online activity and a number of them are already in court and I now expect a substantial verdict before the end of this week,” Starmer said in a video posted on X on Tuesday. “That should send a very strong message to people in person or online.”
Starmer did not mention X or Musk by name in his comments on the issue of online radicalization surrounding the riots.
