WASHINGTON − Elon Musk is keeping the pressure on European leaders.
Musk frequently wields his 211.5-million-follower account on X, the social media platform he bought for $44 billion in 2022, to air political grievances and promote far-right issues.
He has turned his online megaphone to European issues, and especially the U.K., where he latched onto a years-old child sexual exploitation scandal to attack Prime Minister Keir Starmer and promote anti-immigrant sentiment.
But European regulators could crack down on Musk’s use of his platform, as some European leaders have bristled at his insults and influence.
Late last month, Musk resurfaced years-old cases involving “grooming gangs” in the U.K.
In particular, Musk seized on an investigation that found authorities in the city of Rotherham failed to stop the sexual exploitation of around 1,400 children over a 16-year period to lash out at “woke” and anti-racist policies, a longstanding issue for of the American right wing and Musk’s supporters in the U.S.
The Rotherham scandal involved predominantly British-Pakistani men. Musk’s characterization of the scandal echoed Islamophobic and anti-immigrant sentiments that boiled over in a wave of violence in the U.K. spurred by X posts last summer.
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On Sunday, Musk posted an online poll to ask whether “America should liberate the people of Britain from their tyrannical government.”
Much of his vitriol is directed at Starmer, who Musk called “utterly despicable” and whom claimed “repeatedly ignored the pleas of vast numbers of little girls and their parents, in order to secure political support” in a Monday post on X.
Musk also pushed for the release of Tommy Robinson, a far-right activist now serving an 18-month sentence for contempt of court over comments he made about a Syrian boy who was filmed being attacked in an English school.
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Starmer addressed the criticism on Monday, saying, “This government will get on with the job of protecting victims who have been child sexually abused,” he said.
“What I won’t tolerate is this discussion and debate based on lies,” he added.
Musk also waded into German politics, where he called for Chancello Olaf Scholz’ resignation and threw his support behind AfD, Germany’s anti-immigration far-right party. Germany’s domestic intelligence service continues to monitor the party under constitutional measures written after WWII to prevent the rise of another Nazi party.
“The traditional political parties in Germany have utterly failed the people,” Musk wrote late last month, calling AfD “the only hope for Germany” ahead of elections on Feb. 23.
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Asked about Musk in an interview with German newsmagazine Stern, Scholz said, “In Germany, the will of the citizens prevails, not the erratic statements of a billionaire from the USA.”
Of Musk’s insults, he said, “Don’t feed the troll.” More worrying, he said, was Musk’s support of AfD, which he called a “right-wing extremist” party.
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European critics of Musk are urging the European Union to regulate Musk’s posts.
Some leaders have raised concerns they constitute election interference. French President Emmanuel Macron said this week, “Ten years ago, who would have believed it if we had been told that the owner of one of the biggest social networks in the world… intervene directly in elections, including in Germany?”
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Spanish Prime Minster Pedro Sanchez chimed in, accusing Musk of leading “the international far-right that we have been opposing in Spain for years,” which he said “openly attacks our institutions, incites hatred and openly supports the heirs of Nazism in Germany.”
Jean-Noel Barrot, France’s foreign minister, told Inter radio that if the European Commission does not apply protections “with the greatest firmness,” it should “think about giving the capacity to do so back to EU member states.”
Following an investigation opened in December of 2023, European regulators formally charged X last July, making the platform the first to face charges for alleged disinformation and illegal content under the EU’s new Digital Services Act.
The EU has historically acted much more stridently to regulate social media platforms and online speech than regulators in the U.S., which enjoys broad First Amendment speech protections.
