UK Tech Minister Criticizes Elon Musk�s Influence on Public Discourse

The UK’s technology minister says that Elon Musk is “the one person who is accountable to no one,” stressing the billionaire’s major impact on world events. Peter Kyle, Secretary of Science, Innovation, and Technology, underlined in an interview with the Times Musk’s capacity to influence public opinion, affecting events like the conflict between Russia and Ukraine.

According to Kyle, the UK’s interaction with corporations like X and other big social media companies is like conversations with high-ranking authorities in other nations due of their great impact.

His sentiments line up with Musk’s recent divisive remarks over British matters. On his platform, the owner of X and CEO of Tesla hinted that immigration would cause civil war in the United Kingdom.

The spokesman for the British Prime Minister denounced Musk’s remarks on Monday, saying that they lacked “any justification.” UK Courts Minister Heidi Alexander also attacked Musk, saying that anyone with a social media platform should use it sensibly and that equating the riots to civil war was “totally unjustified.”

Kyle has interacted with social media companies including Google, X, Meta (Facebook’s parent company), and TikHub to remind them of their obligation to fight false information online.

Aiming to enforce tighter rules on illegal and dangerous internet content, the UK has approved the internet Safety Act. Not all powers under the act are in effect, thus Ofcom, the law enforcement agency, cannot yet act against businesses allowing damaging posts encouraging the continuous rioting.

Ofcom informed CNBC it is acting fast to apply the legislation, but new responsibilities on digital companies to aggressively control their platforms will not be completely implemented until 2025.