🇬🇧❌❌ Race riots put Britain on collision course with Elon Musk

Britain’s government has social platforms in its sights as incitement spreads — and the X owner is squaring up for a fight.

The billionaire X owner sparked fury in the British government this weekend after he responded to incendiary footage of the far-right disorder that's sweeping the country by saying "civil war is inevitable."

The post on X was roundly condemned by U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer's office, which said there was “no justification” for Musk’s comments.

But Musk doubled, then tripled down on Monday night. Responding to a statement from Starmer vowing his government would “not tolerate attacks on mosques or on Muslim communities,” the X boss effectively accused the British prime minister of wearing blinkers. “Shouldn’t you be concerned about attacks on all communities?” Policing of the unrest "does seem one-sided," he offered in a third post.

Starmer's top interior minister, Yvette Cooper, meanwhile has a litany of complaints over the way social media giants like X are policing incitement and disinformation on their platforms.

“There are some things which are clearly already criminal, where we'll need police intervention and action to pursue those," Cooper told the BBC Monday. "There are other areas where the social media companies do have clear requirements at the moment to remove criminal material, and should be doing so, but sometimes take too long to do so.

"There are other areas where they have made commitments around their terms and conditions that are supposed to be enforced but are not being done so."

Cooper's vowed to take up the issue with tech giants this week.

Yet, despite plenty of hand-wringing over the proliferation of far-right messaging, Britain's toolbox for forcing the hands of social media companies seems limited.

🔗 https://www.politico.eu/article/united-kingdom-riots-elon-musk-x-twitter-fake-news-disinformation/

🦬🇪🇺 In recent years, a movement to "rewild" areas of Europe has taken off.

In my latest essay, I reflect on the enormous loss of wildlife Ireland has suffered in recent history, and why rewilding is a project we should embrace.

✅ Read or listen, and subscribe:

https://keithwoods.pub/p/make-europe-wild-again

🔇 🇬🇧 👨‍💻 Keir Starmer is considering forcing social media companies to remove or suppress 'legal but harmful' content

🔶️ The potential crackdown on tech companies would likely form part of a review of the Online Safety Act, which was passed last year.

🔶️ The Act requires platforms to take “robust action” against illegal content and activity and will be implemented gradually.

🔶️ A “legal but harmful” clause, requiring firms to take down or restrict the visibility of content deemed to be dangerous but not against the law, was included in the original Bill brought forward by the Tories in 2022.

🔶️ It comes as police said they would expect to keep making arrests for months in the wake of the riots, with more people jailed on Friday.

🔶️ Esther McVey, the former Tory Cabinet minister, said “perfectly legal comments” could be targeted by an “unelected thought police”.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2024/08/09/tech-giants-forced-ban-fake-news-labour/

https://archive.ph/KJoip

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🇮🇪 Keith Woods on X:

🇬🇧🇵🇰🇮🇳 British youth parliament offers glimpse into a grim multiracial future: like the Pakistani boy who has presumably spent his whole life in UK saying Kashmir is "the issue that affects us most"

Doesn't sound like "integration"

🔗 Keith Woods