Elon Musk’s social media activity is set to be probed by the British government’s counter-extremism unit.
The tech billionaire has been using his platform X/Twitter to launch a barrage of attacks on the Labour government over the grooming gangs scandal.
After appealing to X users to post “more positive” content in the New Year, he preceded to describe Britain’s safeguarding minister Jess Phillips as “a witch” and a supporter of “genocidal rape abusers”, saying she belongs in prison.
Musk then turned on Sir Keir Starmer, who has done more to bring child rape gangs to justice than any of the long list of far-right, culture-war-baiting mouthpieces have ever done, saying he was “deeply complicit in the mass rapes in exchange for votes”.
According to reports in The Mirror, the Home Office has stepped up extra monitoring to assess content and the reach of what is being shared on social media site X, especially in relation to accounts with large followings – including Musk’s.
The counterterrorism unit has been involved in content analysis and wider risk assessment.
The unit sits within the Homeland Security Group, whose “mission is to reduce national security risks to the UK’s people, prosperity and freedoms”.
“It focuses on the highest harm risks to the homeland, whether from terrorists, state actors, or cyber and economic criminals,” according to the official government website.
Joe Mulhall, director of research at campaign group Hope not hate, has described Musk’s social media activity as “naked foreign interference”, adding that he “comfortably sits within any definition of an extremist”.
He told the Mirror: “He is an international extremist and if he wasn’t a billionaire and he wasn’t close to the Trump administration, I imagine, probably wouldn’t even be allowed into the UK at the moment.”