UK slams ‘deeply irresponsible’ Musk ‘civil war’ comments

A bizarre brawl has broken out between eccentric billionaire Elon Musk and one European prime minister after far-right riots rocked the country.

Billionaire Elon Musk is in a bizarre war of words with the UK, which has been enduring days of far right riots.

The drama started on Sunday when Musk said, the owner of X, wrote of the site that a British “civil war” was inevitable after unrest broke out across the country.

He sparked further ire on Monday with a provocative reply to a tweet by UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer.

“Use of language such as a ‘civil war’ is in no way acceptable,” said justice minister Heidi Alexander, branding Musk’s comments “deeply irresponsible”.

Elon Musk is engaged in a bizarre war of words with the UK. (Photo by SAUL LOEB / AFP)

“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,” she told Times Radio.

Seemingly undeterred Musk ramped up the row on Tuesday, questioning if the UK was “Britain or the Soviet Union” after a man was apparently arrested over comments he made on Facebook.

Riots by anti-immigrant demonstrators have spread across England following the murder of three children at a Taylor Swift-themed dance party in Southport, northwest England, on Monday last week.

A masked protester throws a can of beer towards riot police in Bristol, southern England, on August 3, following a mass stabbing that killed three young girls. (Photo by JUSTIN TALLIS / AFP)

The rioters have targeted mosques and hotels housing asylum seekers, forcing the government to provide emergency security to Islamic places of worship. (Photo by PETER POWELL / AFP)

A protester gestures at riot police during one clash. (Photo by JUSTIN TALLIS / AFP)

They have been fuelled by online disinformation that the stabbing suspect was a Muslim asylum seeker. He is 17-year-old Axel Rudakubana, who was born in Britain.

The rioters have targeted mosques and hotels housing asylum seekers, forcing the government to provide emergency security to Islamic places of worship.

In a post on X on Monday, Starmer vowed to apply “criminal law online as well as offline”, adding that “we will not tolerate attacks on mosques or on Muslim communities”.

Musk replied: “Shouldn’t you be concerned about attacks on *all* communities?”

In his latest rebuke, Musk has retweeted a video appearing to show police officers arresting a man for making offensive comments on Facebook.

He said: “Arrested for making comments on Facebook!

“Is this Britain or the Soviet Union? Is this accurate @CommunityNotes.”

Community Notes is X’s fact checking resource.

In another tweet directed at Starmer, Musk asked “why aren’t all communities protected in Britain?”

- ‘No justification’ -

His original “civil war” post came in a reply to another X user blaming the riots on “the effects of mass migration and open borders”.

Starmer’s spokesperson said Monday their was “no justification” for the comment. Influencer Andrew Tate and far-right, anti-Islam figurehead Tommy Robinson are among people promoting false claims about Rudakubana on X.

Starmer’s spokesperson also blamed “bot activity online”, suggesting that the false rumours could have been “amplified with the involvement of state actors”.

EuropeInvasion, an anti-immigrant X account with hundreds of thousands of followers, still has a post up falsely claiming that the attacker was “confirmed to be Muslim”.

An AI-generated image depicting Muslim men chasing a child wearing a British flag has over 900,000 views.

Technology minister Peter Kyle met representatives from TikTok, Meta, Google, and X on Monday and warned that social media users spreading misinformation will have “nowhere to hide”.

Musk -- who has reduced content moderation on the platform since taking over Twitter, instead relying on user-written “community notes” -- regularly voices support for right-wing causes and politicians like Donald Trump in the US and Javier Milei in Argentina.