How big of a problem is Elon Musk for Keir Starmer?

By Jacob Paul (with Jon Sopel and Lewis Goodall)

The X boss has been accused of stoking further tensions in Britain by highlighting posts by Tommy Robinson and trolling Starmer online. But is there anything the Prime Minister can do to reign in the tech titan?

In brief…

• Elon Musk and Kier Starmer have exchanged blows on social media after the X boss said civil war in Britain was “inevitable” amid the far-right riots
• But the changes to his platform have amplified voices on the far-right, former Twitter VP boss Bruce Daisley says, creating an additional problem for the government
• The options Starmer has to tackle this challenge will be limited, The News Agents say.

What happened between Elon Musk and Keir Starmer this week?

It has been a dark week in Britain. But amid the chaotic rioting on the country’s streets, something “bizarre” is going on.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer and tech titan Elon Musk are locked in an unlikely feud.

Musk, the boss of social media platform X, formerly Twitter, has been accused of stoking further tensions in Britain by claiming that the country is heading for civil war.

Starmer hit out at the billionaire for doing so, with his official spokesperson saying Musk had “no justification” for tweeting that “civil war is inevitable”.

But the spat does not end there, with Musk directly clashing with Starmer on the social media platform.

The Prime Minister’s official account had posted: “We will not tolerate attacks on mosques or on Muslim communities”.

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

Another tweet from Musk simply read: ‘Two-tier Kier”.

Is this a problem for Starmer?

Musk doesn't only contribute to the discourse on Twitter, he owns it, and the decisions he's made for the platform since taking over have real-world consequences. 

Jon Sopel notes that Elon Musk “isn't just presiding over this”. Rather, he “is an actor on his own social media platform”.

Musk has arguably amplified voices on the far-right like Tommy Robinson’s.

This week, he highlighted the former head of the English Defence League’s tweet about Muslims who “run through the streets unchallenged”, just one example of Robinson’s anti-Muslim ranting. 

It’s not just what Musk posts, but how he has intrinsically changed the way X functions to highlight this particular type of content further, according to Bruce Daisley, the former VP of Twitter before Musk’s time. 

Daisley told The News Agents in an exclusive interview: “What we seem to have witnessed under Musk is that toxic posts seem to be being amplified.”

That’s partly because of his platform’s blue tick service, which people pay a subscription fee for.

Daisley explained: “You can have a blue tick and appear right at the top of replies. So even a nice tweet by a reputable news source will have something below which is a Musk fan replying. And often they're quite toxic.”

X is now much more algorithmically driven, Daisley explained.

He said: “What you tend to find being pushed to the top of the algorithm is the stuff…that inflames people, produces an emotional response.”

Dailsey adds that most social platforms, when it comes to toxic voices, would say ‘we just don't want to amplify that’.”

But with Musk, Daisley says you've clearly got a “very different situation.”

Musk has already declared his backing for Donald Trump in the US elections, and now he's “clearly taken sides in British politics”.

“He has clearly taken against Keir Starmer,” Daisley says, “and so we're in a situation where it's not an easy one to resolve.”

Is there anything Starmer can do?

Well, it will be tricky as the “options are limited for Starmer”, says Lewis Goodall.

That doesn’t stop it from being a “really big problem for his government and other governments as well.”

Lewis adds: "Whether we like it or not, X has become a central feature of the public square in liberal democracies, owned by this one guy who has converted it, who has basically become a kind of misinformation merchant-In-Chief.”

Jon Sopel notes that in Elon Musk, we have got someone even more powerful than the media barons of the past like Rupert Murdoch.

But how much is there that Starmer can do, asks Jon.

He says: “They're not going to close Twitter down, I don't think.

“There are limited powers that are available to them.”

Hear the full interview with former Twitter VP...

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