Elon Musk has just returned from a business trip to Oxford and London in 2012. "I just got back... He posted on Twitter, "I met a lot of interesting people." "I really like Britain!"
By 2024, Musk's perspective on Britain has somewhat changed.
"Civil war is inevitable" … "Britain is going full Stalin" … "The people of Britain have had enough of a tyrannical police state" .
He renamed the website after purchasing it, so these are only a few of his latest remarks about X.
Nigel Farage, the head of the party, claims that he has gotten into arguments with politicians on a number of occasions, including Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, has amplified far-right and right views online, and is in negotiations to give to Reform UK.
What, if anything, does Musk intend to accomplish, and why does his relationship with America's closest ally seem to have soured?
Although he didn't reply to our requests for an interview, we would still want to question him ourselves.
However, his X chronology provides some hints.
The self-described "Chief Troll Officer" frequently exaggerates in a way that makes it difficult to tell if he is being satirical or earnest.
He doesn't actually mean that Britain is a totalitarian Communist state when he asks, "Is this Britain or the Soviet Union?" but he sort of does. Instead of providing specifics, he frequently reposts things with simply the word "interesting" or an emoji.
However, in recent years, observers of Musk have seen that the kind of content he promotes to his 200 million followers typically originate from a certain source: a libertarian and "anti-woke" worldview that is hostile to centrists and progressives.
"What's going on in the United Kingdom?"
The shift was made clear during the riots that followed the horrifying murder of three girls at a dance class in the town of Southport, in northwest England, last summer.
Far-right accounts that had been unbanned since Musk took over the firm two years prior were among those spreading false rumors about the attacker on X.
"To large social media companies, and those who run them—violent disorder, clearly whipped up online, that is also a crime," Sir Keir warned as riots broke out and a demonstration descended into violence.
"It's happening on your premises, and the law must be upheld everywhere."
"Insane" was Musk's one word of response.
He would later declare that "civil war is inevitable" and disseminate a fabricated statement from a far-right party leader that Sir Keir was thinking of establishing camps for rioters to be held in detention on the Falkland Islands. The post had received over a million views before he removed it.
Musk recently said that we should "make Orwell fiction again" in reference to George Orwell's dystopian society writings, criticizing Britain's "prison overcrowding situation" on Joe Rogan's podcast, which has been seen 19 million times on YouTube.
Musk has frequently brought up the topic of free speech, even though he seems to care deeply about existential issues about humanity's destiny. Musk is the owner of SpaceX, Tesla, and X.
"What is happening in the UK?" he asked a few weeks ago in response to a tweet from a right-wing American influencer that made a wildly inflated claim on a study on radicalization from the previous government.
Additionally, he could have plans beyond tweeting. According to sources, he is getting ready to give the party a sizable donation. He was recently photographed with Farage and Reform UK treasurer Nick Candy.
The reasons for Musk's concern for Britain
Musk's interest in UK issues may be a reflection of his evolving political views. He even contributed to Hillary Clinton's campaign and referred to himself as a centrist before he began talking about the "woke mind virus" a lot.
A new book and interviews with him suggest that one of the major turning moments in his life was when one of his children changed from male to female and that kid, Vivian Wilson, later cut him off from her life.
Musk may be picking conflicts because "he cares very deeply about the UK," according to Winston Marshall, a former Mumford & Sons guitarist who is now a podcast presenter and a right-leaning political analyst. Marshall's father also co-owns the TV station GB News.
"Britain is the birthplace of liberal democracy, of many of the great philosophies that underpin America," Marshall asserts.
"So then he looks over to the UK and he sees what's been going on for several years, but which is now crescendoing after the August riots, with many, many people being given long jail sentences for literally Facebook memes in some cases."
For example, a person who posted a meme with the description "let's [expletive] riot" in a Facebook group called "riot/protest" during the Southport disturbance received a three-month jail term. "Facebook memes" may seem like a harmless thing.
Some people wonder if the tycoon is as dedicated to free speech as he says.
Musk filed a lawsuit against X after the Center for Countering Digital Hate, which examines social media firms, criticized his time there and accused the business of exploiting data and deterring advertisers. A court in the United States dismissed the lawsuit.
The episode was described as "indicative of the mindset of a man who simply cannot understand that freedom of speech is a freedom afforded to all, not just to him" by its CEO, Imran Ahmed.
Despite Beijing's well-known censorship culture, some opponents have noted that Musk has been cautious not to criticize the president of China, a nation in which Tesla has significant commercial interests.
Although he has far less to lose commercially in Britain, the Online Safety Act, which was approved by Parliament in late 2023, might still have an impact on his earnings. If social media firms are discovered to have specific kinds of unlawful content on their sites, it will enable regulator Ofcom to impose hefty fines on them.
While some of the bill's provisions are uncontroversial, "where it gets a bit more tricky is where this illegal content blurs across into what we might call the kinds of disinformation or misinformation that we see circulate on a daily basis on social media platforms," according to Andrew Chadwick, professor of political communication at Loughborough University.
"Racially or religiously aggravated public order offences or the incitement of violence" may fall under this category, he argues.
A fine of up to 10% of eligible worldwide income is one of the potentially severe penalties associated with the Act.
Is Musk concerned that Britain may take a cut of X's profits or, as the Act permits in certain situations, prevent access to the website in the UK?
The Act's supporters contend that it has nothing to do with restricting free expression. While Musk may not possess "a forensic knowledge of all the details of backbench committee," according to Gawain Towler, former head of communications for Reform UK, he does "see the bigger picture"—what Reform campaigners and others see to as a pervasive culture of censorship.
"You don't have to focus on the trees all the time. Additionally, he says, "I believe Musk has a very good view of the forest."
The wealthiest guy in the world has a mind that no one can read.
However, it is evident that Musk has used his enormous riches to gain power and is now spreading his ideals, such as a widely held American belief in free speech and essentially unrestricted capitalism, to other countries.
He hasn't finished with the UK yet, that much is certain.
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