The tech billionaire was reportedly not invited to a business investment summit in the UK amid an ongoing public spat with Prime Minister Kier Starmer over his response to social media companies during the mass riots spurred by the fatal stabbing of 2 Southport children, the Telegraph reports.
Musk wrote: “I don’t think anyone should go to the UK when they’re releasing convicted pedophiles in order to imprison people for social media posts."
Starmer had told online platforms during the riots in August: "Violent disorder was clearly whipped up online. That is also a crime. It is happening on your premises, and the law must be upheld everywhere," to which Musk responded: "If incompatible cultures are brought together without assimilation, conflict is inevitable."
Anti-mass migration protests over the stabbings, initially blamed on an Afghan immigrant but later tracked to the son of African immigrants, quickly turned to riots across the UK from Brits fed up in general over the influx of Muslim and other multicultural immigrants, likened to an invasion. In response, "Muslim patrol" vigilante groups roamed streets with weapons, seeking protesters, leading to violent clashes between protesters, counter-protesters, and police.
As a response, Starmer's government was swift to form a task force to begin arresting "keyboard warriors" who expressed their disdain for mass migration online, as authorities believed social media posts they deemed to be "inciting racial hatred" could be fueling the riots.
In response to a post announcing one of these arrests, Musk posted: "Is this Britain or the Soviet Union?"
Read more:
UK man jailed after confessing to ‘grossly offensive’ Facebook post with emojis depicting minorities
UK man jailed for 3 years after copying and pasting X post critical of mass immigration
53-year-old UK ‘keyboard warrior’ gets 15-month jail term for Facebook post saying ‘blow the mosque up’ after riots over murdered school girls
UK man faces jail time for ‘instigating’ riots, supporting protests in X posts after school girls killed