UK Says Starmer Disagrees With Musk Post About Free Speech
(Bloomberg) -- Keir Starmer’s spokeswoman said he would “disagree completely” with comments made online by Reform UK party leader Nigel Farage and backed by Elon Musk, the second time in eight days the prime minister’s office has pushed back against remarks by the billionaire.
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Musk over the weekend used the social media platform X that he owns to describe as “messed up” arrests in Britain relating to riots sparked by a July 29 attack on a children’s dance class that left three young girls dead. He also responded “yes” to a post that suggested Starmer was putting people in prison “who commit thought crimes on @X” and responded “true” to a post by Reform UK party leader Nigel Farage calling the prime minister “the biggest threat to free speech we’ve seen in our history.”
Asked about the free speech remark, Starmer’s spokeswoman quickly distanced the prime minister from Farage’s remark and Musk’s reaction. She refused to be drawn on other posts, saying she wouldn’t get into a back-and-forth on individual comments.
Downing Street has sought to avoid a war of words with the world’s richest man over his posts on X, and Starmer himself has steered clear of responding directly to Musk’s posts. Instead, he’s used his spokespeople to respond, with a spokesman saying a week ago that “there’s no justification” for Musk’s verdict on X that “civil war is inevitable” in the UK.
Outspoken EU internal market chief Thierry Breton meanwhile publicly posted a letter to Musk on Monday, reminding him — “in the context of recent events in the United Kingdom” — that his platform is required by the region’s Digital Services Act to mitigate the amplification of harmful content.
Breton noted that the European Union is already taking formal steps against X over allegedly breaking DSA rules and that the government is monitoring the “potential risks in the EU associated with the dissemination of content that may incite violence, hate and racism.” He posted the letter to Musk on X, citing both the UK riots and Musk’s upcoming interview on X with former US President Donald Trump.
The riots were triggered after false claims spread online that a Muslim asylum-seeker was responsible for the brutal murder of the three girls in Southport, northwest England. That led to widespread disorder as far-right activists attacked mosques, the police and facilities related to immigration.
The threat of more violence has since subsided, due to swift convictions and jail sentences against some of those involved and a heavy turnout by police and anti-racist counter-protesters who showed up in thousands at anticipated demonstrations last Wednesday and over the weekend. Starmer’s spokeswoman on Monday said that some 927 people have been arrested and 466 charged in relation to the riots, with about 30 already sentenced.
But as arrests and prosecutions mount, and Starmer’s administration threatens potentially tougher action on the spread of online misinformation, Musk has responded. He’s used X to compare the UK to the Soviet Union and accused Britain of “two-tier policing” — a conspiracy theory that has grown online that police forces treat Britons differently based on their politics.
The billionaire has also amplified misinformation, including sharing a post by the co-leader of Britain First, a far-right party, that showed a falsified news article about the UK considering building “detainment camps” in the Falkland Islands for those arrested in the riots. Musk later deleted his post.
The government is now mulling steps to tighten the regulation of platforms like Musk’s X, including whether to re-introduce a previously removed clause in the Online Safety Act to define and regulate “legal but harmful” content, Bloomberg reported Thursday.
Starmer’s spokeswoman said the government also plans to look more broadly at social media following the recent disorder. Social media companies have a responsibility to ensure there is no safe place for hatred and illegality on their platforms, she said, adding that the government would work very closely with them to ensure that is the case.
(Updates with Breton letter to Musk starting in fifth paragraph)
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