Best printers for Home

Best Mixer Grinder

Best wired Earphones

Best 43 Inch TV in India

Best Wi Fi Routers

Best Home Theatre in India

Smart Watch under 5000

Best Laptops for Education

Best Laptop for Students

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Far-right riots have erupted across the UK after fatal stabbings at a children's dance class.</li><li>False information about the attacker's identity spread rapidly online, fueling the violence.</li></ul>Cities across Britain have seen violent clashes as far-right riots continue to be held.Anti-immigration rioters have taken to the streets following the fatal stabbings at a children's dance class on July 29.Rioters, spurred on by false reports that the attacker had arrived in the country illegally, have set cars on fire, hurled bottles, and <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/arrests-violence-riots-uk-far-right-wing-protests-immigration-2024-8">attacked a hotel in South Yorkshire </a>used to house asylum seekers.In an attempt to dispel the rumors and quell the escalating violence, a judge took the unusual decision to identify the person being detained in connection with the attacks as Axel Muganwa Rudakubana, a 17-year-old born in Cardiff, Wales.But the false reports had already spread like wildfire across pockets of the internet — including <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk">Elon Musk</a>'s X.<h2 id="048850f8-7b29-4b9d-93ed-3bc4e3e59cee">Fake news runs riot</h2>At the center of the unrest was the name Ali Al-Shakati.Several X, Facebook, and TikTok accounts claimed that Al-Shakati — who does not exist — was a Muslim asylum seeker who had carried out the attacks at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in Southport, near Liverpool.The Times of London reported that the fake news had originated from a verified X account using the handle @Artemisfornow, which had more than 40,000 followers. The user has since denied this, instead blaming a Facebook post from a gossip blog.Wherever the false reports originated, they rose to prominence when an X account called Channel 3 Now shared the false news, and far-right voices, including <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/andrew-tate-arrested-fans-already-spreading-conspiracies-tristan-romania-uk-2024-3">Andrew Tate</a>, jumped on the bandwagon."If you look at the origins of that story, X obviously plays a major role," Sander van der Linden, a professor at the University of Cambridge and <a target="_blank" class="editor-rtfLink" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/fake-news-israel-gaza-x-twitter-result-elon-musk-policies-2023-10">misinformation</a> expert, told Business Insider.Some key instigators behind the riots, including far-right activist Tommy Robinson (real name Stephen Yaxley-Lennon) and Tate were banned from Twitter but reinstated after Musk bought the company."A lot of these individuals had been deplatformed, so they wouldn't have had an opportunity to amplify," Van der Linden said. "Twitter also previously had massive fact-checking and moderation resources before Musk took over and got rid of all of that."<h2 id="c72ed426-530f-4cea-ab79-68c18a322cec">Musk adds fuel to the fire</h2>Instead of condemning the violence spurred on partly by his own platform, Musk appears to be squaring up for a fight.The UK government has already condemned the world's richest person over a comment he posted claiming "civil war is inevitable" below a video of the far-right disorder. Downing Street said there was "no justification" for the comments and called on social media companies to do more about the spread of misinformation.Musk later hit back at Prime Minister Kier Starmer for commenting that attacks on mosques or Muslim communities would not be tolerated, asking: "Shouldn't you be concerned about attacks on all communities?"Musk has also claimed that the UK police's response "does seem onesided" — a viewpoint commonly promoted by far-right activists.On Tuesday Musk reposted a video of a police officer making an arrest, adding: "Arrested for making comments on Facebook! Is this Britain or the Soviet Union? Is this accurate @CommunityNotes?"In another post, Musk said that X "provides a clear and immediate way to refute anything false in the replies and with @CommunityNotes. The same is not true for legacy media who lie relentlessly, but there is no way to counter their propaganda."Van der Linden said Musk might be being radicalized by his own platform. Social media is increasingly becoming an echo chamber, the researcher said, especially considering the number of new accounts launched following Musk's Twitter takeover.Musk's echo chamber on X is increasingly conspiratorial, Van der Linden added."Musk is surrounding himself with low-quality information; he's liking and engaging with it so he sees more of it. It's almost like he's not realized he's radicalizing himself on his own platform."Representatives for X did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider, made outside normal working hours.

Elon Musk is helping fuel the flames of far-right rioting on X. An expert says his own platform is radicalizing him.

<ul class="summary-list"><li>There's few people Elon Musk would like to one-up than Mark Zuckerberg.</li><li>The billionaire owner of X looks unlikely to do that now.</li></ul><a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk">Elon Musk</a> might just be losing any hopes he had of one-upping his arch nemesis, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/mark-zuckerberg">Mark Zuckerberg</a>.The <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/meta">Meta</a> boss has been busy taking selfies with llamas, wakeboarding — and watching his net worth climb almost <a target="_blank" href="https://www.bloomberg.com/billionaires/profiles/mark-e-zuckerberg/">$53 billion this year to $181 billion</a>. Musk is still the world's richest person by some measure and worth $228 billion due to his stakes in <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/tesla">Tesla</a> and <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-elon-musk">SpaceX</a>, but has led X into several controversies in recent weeks that risk putting it further behind Zuck's social media empire.Musk, who has spent almost two years running X out of San Francisco, has brutally cornered the advertisers he needs for long-term success <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-x-advertiser-lawsuits-silence-opponents-2024-8">with a lawsuit</a>, while helping disseminate misinformation over tense political and domestic events overseas.It has raised the stakes financially and reputationally for himself and his company as they seek to outdo Zuckerberg, who triggered Musk so much with the launch of X rival Threads last year that <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-trying-revive-cage-match-bet-with-mark-zuckerberg-2024-5">a cage fight almost ensued.</a>If current circumstances last, Musk can forget any hope of X getting anywhere near Meta's $1.3 trillion valuation given the platform is now worth far less than even the <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-twitter-reach-agreement-to-close-acquisition-deal-2022-10">$44 billion he paid for Twitter</a> in 2022.<h2 id="08a14efe-8f2f-47b3-986f-f5272c33a543">A lost battle</h2><div type="image" title="Elon Musk in a suit, his eyes looking low." height="4365" width="6544" msid="112427355" hostid="261" sizebytes="390812"></div>One of Musk's biggest challenges in turning X into a legitimate rival to Zuckerberg's social media platforms is generating revenue.Since taking control of the platform, Musk's been in a constant battle with advertisers that have left or threatened to leave over concerns that misinformation will thrive under his watch.That has been a big problem for X, with Musk venting his frustrations about it all last year after telling advertisers to <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-tells-advertises-get-lost-twitter-dealbook-summit2023-11">go "fuck yourself"</a> and trying to get users to buy ad-free subscriptions.<h2 id="30dd0923-338b-4c14-98ed-2efbfcc952bb">Revenue sinks</h2>None of this seems to have gotten him anywhere.According to a report from The New York Times this week that cited internal documents, X revenue dropped 25% from the first quarter of the year to $114 million, and was 53% lower the same period last year.Meta, meanwhile, has seen a huge surge in advertising revenue since then, allowing it to keep investing in hot new areas like artificial intelligence. In its second quarter this year, revenue (largely driven by ads) jumped 22% year-on-year to $39 billion.If Musk had any hopes of getting back on amiable terms with advertisers to help close the gap on Meta, he could probably wave goodbye to them now.On Tuesday, Musk and CEO Linda Yaccarino announced that X<a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-x-lawsuit-advertisers-boycott-antitrust-2024-8"> had filed a lawsuit</a> in a federal court in Texas against the Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM), a trade group, over a boycott that has cost X billions of dollars.In Musk's own words, it's a declaration of "war" with the very people he needs to boost falling revenue at X.The lawsuit appeared to intimidate the trade group. My colleague Lara O'Reilly reported on Thursday that <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/ad-group-to-suspend-garm-initiative-following-elon-musk-lawsuit-2024-8">GARM told members it was "discontinuing" activities</a> following Musk's legal threat.Though the X owner will no doubt see this as a victory, it threatens to further undermine relations with advertisers.<h2 id="48ff0008-274c-48f0-9cf4-6125d70f06a0">False information</h2>Other recent developments are unlikely to bring advertisers and revenue back to X in a hurry, either.Since <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/arrests-violence-riots-uk-far-right-wing-protests-immigration-2024-8">riots erupted in the UK</a> toward the end of July after three children were killed in Southport, near Liverpool, X has faced questions over its role in helping spread false information with the potential to incite further violence.<a target="_blank" class="" href="https://counterhate.com/research/musks-x-helps-tommy-robinson-rack-up-434-million-views-during-uk-riots/">Research published this week</a> by the Center for Countering Digital Hate found that X had helped generate 434 million views for the posts of far-right figure Tommy Robinson during the UK riots. Between July 29 and August 5, the posts have been averaging 54.3 million views per day on X — five times more daily views than he received before the riots.According to the analysis, Robinson — real name Stephen Yaxley-Lennon — has been "instrumental in stoking hatred of Muslims since the Southport attack on 29 July," with posts "that promote false claims or conspiracies."Critically Musk, who has about 193 million followers on X, has<a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-far-right-rioting-x-social-media-uk-government-2024-8"> played a significant role</a> in allowing misinformation to spread recklessly.The X owner amplified a post made by the co-leader of the nationalist party Britain First that <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://x.com/Josh_Self_/status/1821476378480365639">carried a fake headline from a British newspaper</a> suggesting "emergency detainment camps" would be built on the Falkland Islands to imprison UK rioters. The post has since been deleted.He has also posted to X that <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1819933223536742771">"civil war is inevitable"</a> while accounts on his platform have risked instigating hatred by actively casting <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://x.com/Shayan86/status/1821178809393258826">carefully-selected footage from old protests</a> and riots as present day scenes from the streets of Britain. Whether other dubious posts get taken down seems unlikely. <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.ft.com/content/31919b4e-4a5a-4eba-ada7-88d3fec455f8">According to The Financial Times</a>, X has resisted requests from UK officials to take down controversial posts that it deems to be a "threat to national security."Prime Minister Kier Starmer said on Friday that UK online misinformation laws would be reviewed.There are of course other platforms that have played a role in facilitating the spread of false information, such as messaging app Telegram.But none of this helps Musk in its effort to outdo Zuckerberg at his own social media game and widen X's appeal. Advertisers already repelled by a hands-off approach to fact-checking (X relies on <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-community-notes-issues-x-twitter-disinformation-fact-checking-2023-12">"Community Notes" led by Musk fans</a> for that task) can hardly be expected to return to the platform when its owner is responsible for promoting false information himself.If Musk does eventually concede defeat to Zuckerberg, it'll be difficult to point the finger of blame at others. That may not stop him doing so.

You Searched For "Kier Starmer" and got 2 results

Elon Musk is helping fuel the flames of far-right rioting on X. An expert says his own platform is radicalizing him.

Beatrice Nolan

Elon Musk's battle with Mark Zuckerberg is looking like a lost cause

Hasan Chowdhury

Popular Keywords

Buying Guides