How a few X tags took Elon Musk ‘down the rabbit hole’ on UK politics.

Elon Musk’s recent obsession with UK politics has been fueled by a series of popular accounts on his social media platform X, which the billionaire appears to be turning to for information about gangland scandals and the prosecution of Sir Keir Starmer.

An analysis of the entrepreneur’s feed by the Financial Times found that Musk — whose attacks on Britain’s prime minister and senior politicians have grown increasingly blunt in the past week — has expanded on or responded to few X-tags widely posted about his treatment. Historical sex crimes in the country.

They include Visegrad 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 Cheng, along with several less popular right-leaning accounts allegedly based in the UK.

Posts written by accounts Musk is involved with are guilty. “Britain’s Political Elite”. to cover up the scandal and “Terrible failures” in the prosecutor’s caseHe turned a blind eye to the rape of childrenHe said.

The labels mentioned the clips British newspaper reports and generalize findings from previous inquiries into the subject, often without linking to the source material or providing additional context.

They highlighted that. Independent passages From a book called Easy Meat: Multiculturalism, Islam, and Child Sexual SlaveryWithout naming the publication. A post Connected. Samantha Smith, a Telford survivor, testified that she was five years old when she was first abused by police in Britain and asked if she had consented to sex.

The posts appeared to embolden Musk – who has more than 211 million followers on X and uses the online platform to advocate for conservative cultural positions – to step up his attacks last week on Starmer and UK Defense Minister Jess Phillips, who blamed gang leaders in the UK for the perpetrators being of Pakistani heritage. Do it.

Musk’s posts have pushed the marriage scandal high on the UK news agenda and renewed calls for action, as Conservative MPs attempt to vote on whether to have a new inquiry. Professor Alexis JThe main question was brought up by the Chairman stating that it would be better to implement the steps recommended earlier.

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

On Saturday, Naufal Phillips posted that she had “done an extensive investigation into the Oldham gang-rape”, for which Musk called her a “wicked witch”. He also They replied In an earlier post on the influencer — which frequently jumps on major news developments and with which Mook has long been involved — he called the coverage “unconscionable,” claiming that “cultural sensitivities” took precedence over the pursuit of justice.

In the past week, Musk has retweeted Naufal nearly 40 times. The 53-year-old billionaire posted or reposted 616 times on X during the same period, at least 225 of which were about UK politics, FT Analytics showed on Wednesday morning. He has posted more than 1180 times in seven days, including replies.

Musk, who spent more than $250 million to support Donald Trump’s campaign, has been a regular presence at the president-elect’s Mar-a-Lago home over the past two months, joining calls with world leaders and criticizing governments. Germany and Canada.

Starmer, director of public prosecutions for England and Wales, said he was “deeply complicit in mass rape to get votes”.

The king called for the dissolution of parliament and the calling of new elections.

A person contacted by Mack this week said he does not rely on conversations with UK sources for his information, but prefers to do his own research online. Others close to the billionaire have said they believe the anger is coming mainly from social media accounts released by Musk who don’t directly follow him, but instead appear on X’s algorithmically curated “For You” feed.

Questions about which individuals or organizations are painting Musk’s UK government have also worried some British officials.

Many believe that a small number of conservative-leaning British commentators and analysts based in the United States are shaping their views of the UK among Trump allies.

“There is a pretty right-wing libertarian UK émigré network in America,” said a British government official, who is projecting a picture of free speech advocates linked to right-wing US think tanks. United Kingdom as “uber activated”.

The officials said they included Douglas Murray, a neoconservative author who has written books on the decline of the West and “Islamophilia,” Musk’s teenage scandal tweets, and Niles Gardiner, director of the Center for Freedom in D.C. -Established Heritage Foundation.

A second UK official said the rise of Islam in the UK was another key theme being pushed by US-based British commentators, who last month said there were widespread UK media stories about “Muhammad” becoming the most popular boy’s name in England and Wales. Among Maga images on X and other social sites.

Last week, Musk edited posts on the make-up scandal by former Prime Minister Liz Truss, former Labor MP Kate Huey, former reformist politician Ben Habib and people linked to broadcaster GB News. Reform MP Rupert Lowe has revised several posts, suggesting that he replace Nigel Farage as party leader.

But Musk has approved posts from smaller accounts, including some supporters of far-right icon Tommy Robinson, Starmer says. “He has no sympathy for the English working class.”Among other charges. None of the accounts appear to have been followed by Musk.

X allows users to switch between a feed of accounts they follow, and an algorithmic feed labeled “for you” shows content that can be related to their interests and past activities. Every time Musk links to content about England from alt-right or minority sources, he’ll be served more of the same content on the “For You” page, experts say.

“Musk seems like the first tech leader to fall down the rabbit hole of his own product extremism,” said Bruce Daisley, Twitter’s head of operations in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

He said Tik Tok, which also has an algorithmically selected version of the “For You” page, is “optimized for fun, surprise and entertainment.” Meanwhile, Musk “retweeted extremists from Britain First and Tommy Robinson after saying ‘Let’s post more positives’ at one point,” he added.

Dr. Jane Goulbeck, a professor at College Park, Maryland, who focuses on social media and extremism, said it played a role in the fact that users could easily pay for X’s subscription service and, as a result, appear prominently in users’ feeds. An important role in highlighting accounts that post inaccurate information.

“Algorithmically, I think the most important feature is the addition of blue checks,” she said, referring to X users subscribing to X Premium with a blue check mark on their profile. Musk’s change to X’s verification process means he’s more likely to see posts from people who “share his increasingly extremist ideology,” Golbeck added.

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

“My nana was one of those poor, orphaned girls who could be kidnapped in Britain these days,” Musk said.