A war of words has broken out between Elon Musk and the prime minister after the world’s richest man claimed the UK is heading for civil war.
Musk, the billionaire owner of X, started a row with Downing Street over riots gripping the UK, amid concerns online disinformation is fuelling the unrest.
In a comment on his social media site below a video of rioters setting off fireworks at police, Musk said “civil war is inevitable”.
This was quickly rejected by the prime minister’s spokesperson, who said there is “no justification for comments like that” and “anyone who is whipping up violence online will face the full force of the law”.
Musk then replied to a social media post from Sir Keir which criticised violence towards Muslims.
Mosques and hotels housing asylum seekers have been among the targets of the far-right demonstrations.
Sir Keir said the unrest “is not protest, it is pure violence”, adding: “We will not tolerate attacks on mosques or on Muslim communities”.
Musk replied: “Shouldn’t you be concerned about attacks on *all* communities?”.
The row risks threatening government efforts to get social media companies to take more responsibility for removing harmful online content believed to be stoking some of the violence.
Technology Secretary Peter Kyle met with the bosses of Tiktok, Meta, Google and X on Monday evening “to make clear their responsibility to continue to work with us to stop the spread of hateful misinformation and incitement”.
Speaking after the meeting, the cabinet minister added: “There is a significant amount of content circulating that platforms need to be dealing with at pace.
“Different companies take different approaches and I expect platforms to ensure that those seeking to spread hate online are not being facilitated and have nowhere to hide.”
Sir Keir earlier chaired an emergency COBRA committee on the riots, in which he said that anyone whipping up violence online will face “the full force of the law”.
“If you’re inciting violence, it doesn’t matter whether it’s online or offline,” the prime minister said.
“And therefore I expect, just as in relation to those that are directly participating on the streets, for there to be arrests and charging and prosecution.
“Equally, anyone who has been found to have committed a criminal offence online can expect the same response.”
