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UK government calls on Elon Musk to act responsibly after provocative posts on riots

  • Provocative tech billionaire Elon Musk and UK government spar as violent far-right riots grip the country

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Elon Musk, owner of X, formerly known as Twitter. File photo: Twitter

The British government has called on Elon Musk to act responsibly after the tech billionaire used his social media platform X to unleash a barrage of posts that officials say risk inflaming the violent unrest gripping the country.

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Justice Minister Heidi Alexander made the comments Tuesday morning after Musk posted a comment saying that “Civil war is inevitable” in the UK.

Musk later doubled down, highlighting complaints that the British criminal justice system treats Muslims more leniently than far-right activists and comparing Britain’s crackdown on social media users to the Soviet Union.

“Use of language such as a ‘civil war’ is in no way acceptable,” Alexander told Times Radio. “We are seeing police officers being seriously injured, buildings set alight, and so I really do think that everyone who has a platform should be exercising their power responsibly.”

Police detain a protester in Weymouth, England on August 4. Photo: AFP
Police detain a protester in Weymouth, England on August 4. Photo: AFP

Britain has been shaken by violence for more than a week, as police clashed with crowds spouting anti-immigrant and Islamophobic slogans in cities and towns from Northern Ireland to the south coast of England.

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