Musk ‘whipping up anti-immigrant sentiment’ – disinformation expert

To discuss the war of words between Elon Musk and the UK government, we’re joined by Marc Owen Jones, who’s a professor of media analytics and a disinformation expert.

Ayshah Tull: Ten months ago, we had Elon Musk talking to the former prime minister, Rishi Sunak, in an AI conference, answering softball questions. Now we have these kind of posts. Why do you think he’s doing it right now?

Marc Owen Jones: What Elon Musk is doing fits entirely within his ideology. Elon Musk is kind of right wing, becoming increasingly right wing and is engaged in this anti, what he sees as an anti-woke, anti-progressive values war. He constantly retweets and promotes accounts spreading disinformation and hate speech towards minorities and members of the trans community. So I think what Musk is doing in promoting these far right narratives and hashtags in the recent riots shouldn’t be surprising. In fact, I would argue this is probably why Elon Musk took over Twitter.

He didn’t buy Twitter because it was a good financial decision. He himself acknowledges that. He bought Twitter because it was a platform for him to spread his ideology. He is the most followed person on X, and I think that’s really important to remember. And he knows that, and he knows that a reply from him, a retweet from him, will actually boost something algorithmically, making a lot of people see that information who wouldn’t ordinarily see it.

Ayshah Tull: Well, he’s not here to defend himself. He would say that he is an advocate for free speech. But I do wonder, what has he got to gain from this? Is it that loads of people are posting on it? This has been trending for so many days now. And actually, does this have more to do with the US election than it does with what’s going on here?

Marc Owen Jones: I think it’s both. I think he’s obviously thrown his hat in with the right wing in the US. And what he’s doing is also promoting a level of far right politics that is not limited to the UK or the US. This is a global movement, a global movement that is increasingly anti-immigration, anti minority and particularly anti-Muslim. And I think this is really important to bear in mind, that he’s whipping up this frenzy of anti-immigrant sentiment, ahead of an election that’s going to be extremely contested. So I think it’s part of his playbook.

And as you said, he’s not here to defend himself, and I acknowledge that, I don’t think he is an advocate for free speech. There’s been plenty of examples where he himself has censored certain people because he doesn’t like what they’re saying. So I think this fits in with his culture wars mentality. And it’s only a few months now before we have the US presidential race. And I think he really is trying to mobilise support for a social media wave of animosity towards progressive Democrats and those who might vote left-wing.

Ayshah Tull: It’s not just him who the government have accused of inciting racial hatred. You’ve got Tommy Robinson, who’s possibly sunning himself on a sunbed in Cyprus. He used to be banned on platforms like this. Should he and others like him be banned again?

Marc Owen Jones: I mean, I think they should. I think social media companies have a duty of care to the users. That duty of care involves not allowing the platform to be weaponised for hate speech and propaganda. And I think if people are engaged in hate speech or propaganda or types of dangerous speech that undermine democracy and the safety of others, then they have no right to be on those platforms. And you have to remember that Elon Musk not only allowed Tommy Robinson back on the platform, he also allowed people like Donald Trump back on the platform.

So I think he is deliberately being provocative with this notion of safety. And if we also remember that when Elon Musk took over Twitter, he deliberately disbanded the trust and safety team, which was the team designed to actually try and prevent hate speech, try and prevent the proliferation of disinformation. So Musk’s takeover was a slap in the face for those who want to use social media in a way that’s conducive to…

Ayshah Tull: I just wanted to get one more final question in, which is that we’ve seen the first prosecution, first criminal prosecution of someone online for allegedly posting criminal messages linked to violence today in Leeds. Are tech bosses going to be worried about what they are allowing to publish and a possible crackdown that could come?

Marc Owen Jones: Yes, they’re definitely going to be worried. The UK has the Online Safety Bill now, which basically penalises false information being spread to cause nontribual harm. If everyone was prosecuted for doing that, there would be a lot of prosecutions. Tech companies know these kind of laws hurt their bottom line, which is why they often lobby in places like Brussels to get certain laws not passed because they will be harmful. So they will be definitely worried now and I think Elon Musk in particular will be worried because he is, I call the ‘disinfluencer in chief’, the ‘disinformation influencer extraordinaire’, who basically has made a living, or is making a living now, spreading false information.