Ap
The newspaper La Jornada
Wednesday, August 7, 2024, p. 26
London. The British government has called on Elon Musk to act responsibly after the tech billionaire used his social network X to launch a barrage of posts that authorities say risk aggravating the violent unrest rocking the country.
Justice Minister Heidi Alexander made these comments yesterday after Musk posted on X that civil war is inevitable in the UK. Musk later doubled down, highlighting complaints that Britain’s criminal justice system treats Muslims more leniently than far-right activists, and comparing Britain’s crackdown on social media users to what was happening in the Soviet Union.
“The use of language like ‘civil war’ is not acceptable in any way,” Alexander told Times Radio. We see police officers seriously injured and buildings burned down, so I really think that anyone with a platform should exercise their power responsibly.
The UK has been rocked by violence for more than a week, with police clashing with crowds chanting anti-immigrant and Islamophobic slogans in cities from Northern Ireland to England’s south coast. The unrest began when far-right activists used social media to spread misinformation about a knife attack that killed three girls at a Taylor Swift-themed dance event on July 29.
Bravado
Labour Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who has described the riots as a far-right bravadosaid the day before yesterday that the government will deploy a standing army of specialized police to quell the riots.
But the government has also called on social media platforms such as Musk’s Twitter X, formerly known as Twitter, to do more to combat the spread of misleading and inflammatory information on the internet.
Alexander announced on Tuesday that the government would seek to strengthen the Online Safety Act, which was passed last year and will not come into full force until 2025.
