The government’s counter-extremism unit is set to probe Elon Musk’s tweets.
The owner of X, formerly Twitter, has used his platform to wage a series of attacks on the Labour government over the grooming gangs scandal, as extremism experts warn toxic social media posts could once again incite violence on Britain’s streets.
According to the Mirror, the Home Office has intensified monitoring efforts to evaluate the content and reach of posts shared by large accounts on X, including Elon Musk’s.
The counterterrorism unit has been involved in content analysis and a 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 government’s official website.
It comes as the Met Police told safeguarding minister Jess Phillips not to go outside alone and heightened her security after the billionaire described her as a “rape genocide apologist” following a request from Oldham Council for a Whitehall-led inquiry into child sexual abuse in the town which she declined.
Ms Phillips told MPs in the House of Commons: “This is a bandwagon that people can jump on to, and they come and say words in this building and I welcome every single word that has been said, but it is action that is needed.”
Elon Musk has also privately spoken to allies to see how he could remove Keir Starmer as prime minister before the next election and potentially replace him with Reform MP for Great Yarmouth Rupert Lowe.
In response, Joe Mulhall, director of research at campaign group Hope not Hate accused Mr Musk of engaging in “naked foreign interference”, saying: “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.”
John Woodcock, the government’s adviser on political violence and disruption, added: “Britain’s democracy isn’t a play thing for foreign billionaires – Elon Musk needs to back off and concentrate on his rockets and his cars or whatever he wants to obsess about next. Our electoral laws rightly forbid foreign donations and my recent review warns against our information channels being deliberately manipulated from abroad. We should be watching closely to ensure that doesn’t happen here.”
