Downing Street condemns Elon Musk for claim ‘civil war is inevitable’ in UK amid far-right riots and attacks

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Downing Street condemns Elon Musk for claim ‘civil war is inevitable’ in *** amid far-right riots and attacks

Downing Street has condemned

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for his claim that “civil war is inevitable” in Britain, saying there is “no justification for comments like that”.

The spokesperson added: “We’re talking about a ********* of thugs that do not speak for Britain.”

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 on Mr Musk’s social media platform 

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/

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 has been blamed for helping to fuel ******* 

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 and attacks.

Following

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of the suspect in the Southport ****** *******, disorder continued across the weekend as ******* mobs clashed with police in

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, and

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housing asylum seekers in Manvers and Tamworth.

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His latest comments mark the sixth time since October that Musk has claimed civil war is brewing in Europe (Drew Angerer/AFP via Getty)

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With posts featuring misinformation on

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/X garnering millions of interactions, Mr Musk – who bought the platform in 2022 for £34.5bn – responded to a post on Sunday sharing footage of the *********, which claimed disorder is the “effects of mass migration and open borders”.

“Civil war is inevitable,” the Tesla and SpaceX founder replied. It marks the sixth time since October that Mr Musk has claimed civil war is brewing in Europe.

On Monday, Downing Street reiterated that social media companies “can and should be doing more” to counter misleading or dangerous material hosted on their platforms, adding that they have a responsibility to ensure the safety of their users.

Mr Musk drew criticism from across the political spectrum for his remarks, with Tim Montgomerie, editor of the ************* Home website, saying: “Extraordinarily irresponsible from Elon Musk. We need leaders to de-escalate, not raise fears.”

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A car burns in Middlesbrough, during a ******* anti-immigration riot (Owen Humphreys/PA)

Michael Stephens, a senior fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute, said: “Proof if ever it was needed that making electric cars and space rockets does not equal political understanding. Civil war is absolutely not inevitable. The *** is a small space filled with a lot of people. We all have to make it work.”

The Thick of It writer Armando Iannucci said: “Tomorrow morning you’ll see the people who live here tidy these streets up. Small gangs of thugs do not a mass movement make. You’ve been taken in by your own platform, which amplifies noise at the expense of facts.”

But such inflammatory claims have been echoed by other public figures, with actor-turned-right-wing activist Laurence Fox seeking to cast

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as a “traitor” on the side of “immigrant barbarians”, adding in a

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/X post “liked” nearly 60,000 times: “Fine. Then it’s war.”

As calls emerged for greater regulation of social media, Professor Marc Owen Jones, a disinformation researcher at Doha’s Hamad Bin Khalifa University, said: “X has been weaponised to spread rumours and hate speech, particularly targeting minorities, people of a ******* background, to inflame tensions.”

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Far-right thugs clash with police officers in Sunderland (Getty)

“Unfortunately, social media companies make it all too easy for potential bad actors to set up anonymous accounts and spread rumours,” Prof Jones told BBC News.

“The idea with a disinformation campaign, if you have someone acting in bad ******, they will spread falsehoods and then other people in good ******, regular Joe, might pick it up because they believe that person to be credible, and then spread it. And that’s

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,” he said.

Since buying

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in 2022 and rebranding it as X, Mr Musk has allowed many previously banned figures back onto the platform, including Tommy Robinson, with

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as the former EDL leader was accused of inflaming tensions in the *** from a hotel in Cyprus.

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A police officer walks past a ***** during clashes between police and rioters in Rotherham (Danny Lawson/PA)

Hours earlier, Sir Keir had issued a message to social media firms during a press conference in Downing Street, saying: “Violent disorder, clearly whipped up online, that is also a ******, it’s happening on your premises, and the law must be upheld everywhere.”

Painting himself as a champion of free speech, as many users report increased hateful and extreme content on

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/X, Mr Musk has also

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in the upcoming US elections and has spoken about wanting to ******** the “woke mind virus”.

The Independent has contacted Mr Musk for comment.

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#Downing #Street #condemns #Elon #Musk #claim #civil #war #inevitable #farright #riots #attacks

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