How a handful of X accounts took Elon Musk ‘down the rabbit hole’ on UK politics

Elon Musk’s recent obsession with UK politics is fueled by a series of popular accounts on his social media platform X, which the billionaire appears to be turning to for information on the grooming gang scandal and Sir Keir Starmer’s track record as a prosecutor.

An analysis of the entrepreneur’s feed by the Financial Times found that Musk — whose attacks on the British prime minister and senior politicians have become more virulent in the past week — has expanded on or responded to several widely posted X accounts about the handling of the country’s historic sex crimes.

These include Viségrad 24 — an account with more than 1.2 million followers run by British-born Stefan Thompson — social media personality Mario Naufal and Malaysian influencer Ian Miles Cheong, along with several less popular right-leaning accounts based in the UK.

Musk blamed the posts on accounts he was involved with “The British Political Elite” to cover up the scandal, and referred to “Terrible failure“By prosecutors, they allege”Turned a blind eye to the rape of children”

Snippets quoted from the account British newspaper reports, And summary results from previous searches on the topic, mostly without linking to source material or providing more context.

They also pointed out isolated passage From the book called Easy Meat: Multiculturalism, Islam and Child Sex SlaveryWithout naming the publication. a post connected Telford survivor Samantha Smith testified that British police asked her if she had consented to sexual activity, even though she was five years old when she was first abused.

The posts prompted Musk – who has more than 211 million followers on X and uses his online pulpit to advocate conservative cultural positions – to step up his attacks on Starmer and UK Defense Minister Jess Phillips last week, accusing them of failing. Leaders of sex-grooming gangs in England to be held accountable because perpetrators were of Pakistani origin.

Musk’s posts have pushed the grooming scandal to the top of the UK news agenda and sparked calls for fresh action, with Conservative MPs trying to force a vote on whether a new inquiry should be launched. Professor Alexis JChair of the original investigation, has been drawn in, it would be better to implement the measures already recommended.

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

On Saturday, Naufal posted that Phillips had “cancelled a larger investigation into Oldham’s rape gangs”, in response to which Musk called her a “wicked witch”. He also the answer In an earlier post by the influencer — who often jumps on notable news developments and with whom Musk has long been involved — who claimed that “cultural sensitivities” were prioritized over justice, the alleged cover-up was called “reckless.”

Last week, Kasturi reposted Naufal almost 40 times. As of Wednesday morning, the 53-year-old billionaire had posted or reposted 616 times on X over the same period, at least 225 of which were about UK politics, according to FT analysis. Including replies, he posted more than 1180 times in seven days.

Musk, who has spent more than $250 million supporting Donald Trump’s campaign, has been a near-constant presence for the past two months at the president-elect’s Mar-a-Lago home, from where he has joined calls with world leaders and criticized the government. Germany and Canada.

He claimed that Starmer, a former director of public prosecutions in England and Wales, was “deeply involved in gang-rape for votes”.

He also called for the king to dissolve parliament and call for new elections.

A person who contacted Musk this week said he was not relying on conversations with a UK source for his information, but preferred to do his own research online. Others close to the billionaire previously said they believed his anger was largely driven by posts from social media accounts Musk doesn’t follow directly, but that appear in his algorithmically curated “For You” feed on X.

Some British officials have also questioned which individuals or organizations are coloring Musk’s position against the UK government.

Many believe that a small cast of conservative-leaning British commentators and analysts based in the US are shaping views about the UK within a wider circle of Trump allies.

“There’s a pretty right-wing liberal UK émigré network in the US who are feeding off of it a lot,” said a British government official, adding that they are linked to right-wing US think tanks who are projecting an image of the UK as “Uber Wack”.

Officials said they included Douglas Murray, a neoconservative author who has written books on Western decline and “Islamophilia,” which Musk has mentioned in tweets about the grooming scandal, and Nile Gardiner, director of the Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom in D.C. -based Heritage Foundation.

A second UK official said the growth of Islam in the UK was another key issue pressed by influential US-based British commentators, highlighting that UK media stories were widely shared last month about “Muhammad” becoming the most popular boy’s name in England and Wales. X and other social media sites among the statistics

In the past week, Musk has escalated the grooming scandal posts by former prime minister Liz Truss, former Labor MP Kate Hoye, former reform politician Ben Habib and people linked to broadcaster GB News. He has widened several posts from Reform MP Rupert Lowe, who has suggested replacing Nigel Farage as party leader.

But Musk also endorsed posts from smaller accounts, including some supporters of right-wing figure Tommy Robinson, who claimed Starmer “No sympathy for the English working class”Among other complaints. No accounts seem to be following Mask.

X allows users to switch between a feed of only the accounts they follow and an algorithmic feed dubbed “For You,” which shows content that matches their interests and previous activity. The more Musk engages with UK-related content from the right or niche sources, the more similar content he will be served on his “For You” page, according to experts.

“Musk has seemingly become the first tech leader to go down the rabbit hole of radicalization by his own product,” said Bruce Daisley, the former head of Twitter’s operations in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

He said TikTok, which also has a version of an algorithmically curated “For You” page, is “heavily optimized for fun, surprise and entertainment”. Meanwhile Musk “put together ‘Let’s post more positive stuff’ then retweeted extremists from Britain First and Tommy Robinson,” he added.

Dr. Jane Golbeck, a professor at the University of Maryland, College Park, who focuses on social media and extremism, said that played into the ease with which users could pay for X’s subscription service and consequently appear more prominently in its users’ feeds. A major role in amplifying accounts that post false information.

“Algorithmically, I think a really important feature is the increase in blue checks,” he said, referring to X users with subscriptions to X Premium, identified by a blue tick on their profile. Changes to X’s verification process by Musk meant he was more likely to see posts from people who “shared his increasingly radical ideology,” Golbeck added.

On Tuesday, Musk said he had a personal reason for being interested in the UK, posting that his British grandmother, Cora Amelia Robinson, “grew up very poor in England” and was important to him as a child.

“My grandmother was one of those poor working-class girls with no one to protect who could be kidnapped in present-day Britain,” Musk claims.