How a handful of X accounts sent Elon Musk down the rabbit hole of British politics

Elon Musk’s recent obsession with British politics has been driven by a series of popular accounts on his social media platform Information on Sir Keir Starmer’s record as prosecutor.

A Financial Times analysis of the entrepreneur’s feed found that Musk’s attacks on the British prime minister and senior politicians have grown harsher over the past week, and he amplified or responded to some X accounts that posted widely about their handling of the situation. Historic sex crimes in the country.

These include Viségrad 24 (an account run by British-born Stefan Tompson with more than 1.2 million followers), social media personality Mario Nawfal and Malaysian influencer Ian Miles Cheong, as well as several less popular right-leaning accounts said to be based in the UK .

Posts from accounts Musk participated in accused the “British political elite” of covering up the scandal and cited the “horrible failure” of prosecutors, claiming they “turned a blind eye to the rape of children.”

The reports quoted excerpts from British newspaper reports and summarized previous findings on the matter, but most did not link to sources or provide further context.

They also highlighted a book titled ” Easy Meat: Multiculturalism, Islam and Child Sex Slaveryan untitled publication. One post linked to the testimony of Telford survivor Samantha Smith that British police asked her if she consented to sex, even though she was only five when she was first abused.

The posts appear to have encouraged Musk – who has more than 211 million followers on intensity of attack, claiming they failed to do so.

Musk’s posts catapulted the beauty scandal to the top of the British news agenda and sparked renewed calls for action, with Conservative MPs trying to force a vote on whether to launch a new investigation. Professor Alexis Jay, who chaired the original inquiry, also weighed in and said it would be best to implement the measures that had been recommended.

Musk, the world’s richest man, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

On Saturday, Nofal posted that Phillips had “cancelled the wider investigation into the Oldham rape ring,” to which Musk responded by calling her a “wicked witch.” He also responded to an earlier post from the influencer – who frequently follows breaking news and has a long-standing relationship with Musk – which claimed “cultural sensitivity” prioritized the pursuit of justice and called the alleged cover-up “unconscionable.”

Musk has retweeted Nawfal nearly 40 times in the past week. The 53-year-old billionaire posted or reposted 616 times on X during the same period, at least 225 of which were related to British politics, according to a Financial Times analysis as of Wednesday morning. Counting replies, he posted more than 1,180 times in 7 days.

Musk spent more than $250 million supporting Donald Trump’s campaign and has been a near-constant presence at the president-elect’s Mar-a-Lago resort over the past two months, where he has spoken with world leaders and Criticize governments.

He claimed that Starmer, the former attorney general of England and Wales, “played a serious complicity in mass rape in exchange for votes”.

He also called on the king to dissolve parliament and hold new elections.

One person who interacted with Musk this week said he did not rely on conversations with British sources for information, preferring to do his own research online. Others previously close to the billionaire said they believe his anger was largely fueled by posts on social media accounts that Musk doesn’t follow directly but that appeared on his website via Algorithmically curated “for you” content on X.

The question of which individuals or organizations influenced Musk’s views on the British government has also attracted the attention of some British officials.

Some believe that a small group of conservative British commentators and analysts based in the United States are influencing how Britain is viewed in the wider context of Trump’s allies.

“There is a fairly right-wing libertarian British immigration network in the United States that is providing a lot of this information,” a British government official said, adding that they were free speech advocates with links to right-wing think tanks in the United States. An image is being created of Britain being called “super-woke”.

The officials said they included Douglas Murray, a neoconservative writer who has written about the decline of the West and “Islamic fanaticism,” and Nile Gardiner. Books, Musk mentioned Murray in tweets about the beauty scandal, and Neil Gardner, director of the Margaret Thatcher Freedom Center in Washington, D.C., at the Heritage Foundation.

The growth of Islam in Britain is another key theme driven by influential commentators in the UK, another British official said, highlighting British media reports last month that “Mohammed” had become the most popular boy’s name in England and Wales. The report was widely shared by Maga characters on X and other social media sites.

In the past week, Musk has also zoomed in on former prime minister Liz Truss, former Labor MP Kate Hoey, former reformist politician Ben Habib and talks with broadcasters Posts about beauty scandals from people contacted by GB News. He extended a number of positions to Reform Party MP Rupert Lowe and suggested the latter replace Nigel Farage as party leader.

But Musk also endorsed posts from smaller accounts, including some supporters of far-right figure Tommy Robinson, which claimed Starmer had “no sympathy for the British working class”, among other accusations. Musk does not appear to follow these accounts.

The Experts say the more Musk engages with content about the UK from far-right or niche sources, the more similar content his For You page will receive.

Bruce Daisley, former head of Twitter’s Europe, Middle East and Africa operations, said: “Musk appears to be the first tech leader to fall down the rabbit hole of radicalization due to his own products.”

He said TikTok also has an algorithmically curated version of its “For You” page that is “more optimized for fun, surprise and entertainment.” Meanwhile, Musk is “simultaneously saying ‘let’s post more positive content’ and then retweeting extremists from Britain First and Tommy Robinson,” he added.

Jen Golbeck, Ph.D., a professor at the University of Maryland, College Park who focuses on social media and extremism, said the ease with which users could pay for X’s subscription service, thereby gaining a more prominent position in users’ feeds, played an important role. Plays an important role in amplifying accounts that post inaccurate information.

“Algorithm-wise, I think a very important feature is the enhancement of blue checks,” she said, referring to X users who subscribe to X Premium, represented by a blue check on their profile. Golbeck added that Musk’s changes to X’s verification process mean he is more likely to see posts from people who “share his increasingly radical ideology.”

On Tuesday, Musk said he had personal reasons for being interested in Britain, tweeting that it was important to him that his British grandmother, Cora Amelia Robinson, “grew up in the UK.”

“My Nana is one of those poor, working-class girls who, with no one to protect her, could have been kidnapped in today’s Britain,” Musk claimed.