The
Guardian view on Elon Musk’s disinformation: escalating hate and threatening
democracy
Editorial
The UK prime
minister calls out the reckless amplification of conspiracy theories by the
world’s richest man on child sexual abuse. Good
Mon 6 Jan
2025 18.50 GMT
On Monday,
Sir Keir Starmer rightly defended robust debate but insisted it “must be
grounded in facts, not lies”, in response to Elon Musk’s falsehoods about his
role in dealing with child sexual exploitation. The prime minister has wisely
not engaged Mr Musk directly, partly because the world’s richest man is a
member of Donald Trump’s inner circle. Sir Keir recognises this epistemic
crisis as a coordinated campaign to spread disinformation, sow division, and
erode trust. As the philosopher Lee McIntyre aptly notes: “The truth isn’t
dying – it’s being killed.”
The goal is
clear: to create groups in society that unquestioningly accept an authoritarian
leader’s word. In this way, opinions are no longer based on facts but rooted in
identity. Disinformation becomes a potent political weapon, making voters
believe falsehoods while distrusting – even hating – those who don’t. Mr Musk
values the power to shape belief systems to enable pliable governance.
Politicians who refuse to align with his agenda can be discarded, as he bets
his followers will support whichever candidate he endorses. The Reform UK
leader, Nigel Farage, has learned this the hard way, and the Tories’ Kemi
Badenoch risks repeating the same error.
Mr Musk uses
X much like Mr Trump once used Twitter – communicating with millions to
influence media, lawmakers and political parties. This weekend, Musk fuelled a
Trumpian media loop with disinformation about child sexual abuse and grooming
gangs. The health secretary, Wes Streeting, summed up many people’s fatigue
when asked about Mr Musk’s antics by replying: “Do I have to?” Mr Musk’s
attention-seeking is as exhausting as it is reckless. Lacking any grasp of
British law or the 2022 child abuse inquiry, he smeared both the current prime
minister and his predecessor Gordon Brown. The latter was outraged enough to
contact the BBC’s Today programme on Monday morning with evidence to contradict
Mr Musk’s claims.
Sir Keir
rightly condemned those, like Mr Musk, who amplify figures such as the
convicted criminal and far-right agitator Tommy Robinson, prioritising
self-interest over that of the victims or of the wider criminal justice system.
His warning about threats to the Labour minister Jess Phillips recalls the
toxic rhetoric that contributed to the murder of Jo Cox MP by an extremist
during the 2016 Brexit referendum campaign – a grim reminder of the deadly cost
of escalating hate. Good information isn’t enough to counter bad. Regulation is
needed to curb harmful content, though the challenge will be to balance free
expression and surveillance.
Mr Musk’s
“success” owes less to his brilliance and more to a political and media
landscape ripe for exploitation. Britain is not yet the US, where Trumpian
poison has tainted the well, and it must not be allowed to go the same way.
France’s president, Emmanuel Macron, wondered who could have foreseen that “the
owner of one of the largest social networks in the world would support a new
international reactionary movement and intervene directly in elections”. Mr
Musk’s European interventions might be self-serving. In the US, he clearly aims
to shape regulations in his favour, leaving rivals wary of his political power.
His aim is to install far-right extremists loyal to plutocratic power, using
attacks on liberal elites, feminists, migrants and Muslims as his rallying cry.
The irony? By dismissing campaigns for equality as grievance politics, Mr Musk
and his ilk are deploying the very tactics they deride.
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