Opinion
The Senedd must take the first steps towards regulating the likes of Elon Musk
Martin Shipton
As if one narcissistic imposter at the apex of US politics wasn’t enough, we now have to put up with the richest man in the world presenting himself as a torchbearer for ordinary people standing up against privileged elites.
Elon Musk has taken the misuse of social media as a channel of disinformation to a new level of brazen audacity.
It’s time he was brought down a peg or two - and the Senedd could make a start on doing so.
While foreigners like Vladimir Putin seeking to undermine our democracy have at least made an effort to conceal their involvement, Musk has no inhibitions about making his intentions clear.
He’s let it be known that he’s prepared to donate $100m to Reform UK, in flagrant breach of the spirit, if not the letter, of UK electoral law. And he’s prepared to devote much of his time to using the social media channel he owns to attacking European governments, including ours, which he hates because they don't share his hard right worldview.
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Bile
Musk boasts of having more than 210 million followers on his own X platform, to whom he is constantly spewing out bile - the worst of the content being entirely without foundation, but designed to undermine anyone and any organisation he perceives to be an enemy.
This is a grotesque example of someone who is hugely wealthy using a means of mass communication to brainwash the credulous into believing things that are not true, and to stir them up into a state of anger that in some cases will spill over into the wish to cause physical harm. He claims he is exercising the right to freedom of speech, but in reality he is using his immensely powerful position to create the conditions for change - and for most people, it will be change for the worse, not the better.
When Trump returns to the White House, Musk is due to take charge of a new US federal department dedicated to drastically reducing the number of public sector employees. The aim of this is not to “cut waste”, but to neutralise the regulation of sectors that need protection from rogue businesses that would damage the environment, human health and other rights that ordinary people take for granted. Profit, even more than it is at present, will become society’s motivating force as inequality inevitably becomes more pronounced.
Nigel Farage has made it clear that he supports Musk’s agenda, and that it could become a model for Britain.
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Marxism
In recent days Musk has turned his attention to the UK, whose recently elected Labour government he laughably regards as a bastion of repressive Marxism.
Musk’s championing of “Tommy Robinson” as a political prisoner may be a miscalculation, as Farage understands very well.
Farage knows that “Robinson’s” thug-like approach and reputation will not go down well with many of the people whose votes he is courting. He therefore distances himself from “Robinson” personally, even if he agrees with much of what the serial criminal whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon stands for.
Musk shamelessly repeats his “fake news” allegation that Keir Starmer was personally responsible, during his time as the Director of Public Prosecutions, for going easy on gangs of Muslims who were sexually abusing white girls in north of England towns.
In the days before he bought Twitter, now crassly renamed X, users were able through a complaints system to get factually incorrect material removed from the platform. Many argue that since Musk took over the channel, he himself has become the single most significant purveyor of fake news on the planet - partly by bombarding users with material from hard right and conspiracy theory accounts that they hadn’t chosen to follow, and partly by entering the fray himself with highly tendentious posts that don’t stand up to fact checking.
Needless to say, Musk’s channel is not regulated by any external agency. In practice, he regulates himself.
Former Wrexham Labour MP Ian Lucas sat on a House of Commons committee that investigated the misuse of social media by ill-motivated players. He described those who control the medium as “digital gangsters”, which is also the title of a compelling book he wrote on the subject.
Misuse
Lucas agrees that Musk has taken the misuse of social media to an unprecedented level. He told me: “No one regulates the internet and the only person who regulates Elon Musk is Musk himself.
“When I was on the Commons committee looking at these issues, we considered what could be done. I knew the then Tory government wouldn’t do anything, but after last July’s general election I thought there was a chance the incoming Labour government would. But so far they’ve done nothing about it.
“However, following recent changes to the law, there are steps the Senedd could take to at least start the process of making the likes of Musk operate within a regulatory framework.”
Lucas pointed out that while there are strict cash limits on what can be spent by candidates in UK elections, such restrictions only apply during the short period leading up to election day.
At present there are no restrictions on what can be spent on political advertising on the internet, and no obligation on those responsible for buying digital space to notify any regulatory body about its content, or to identify who is paying and how much - let alone any obligation to be truthful. This is a yawning gap that needs to be plugged.
Lucas told me: “The Senedd has the power to set up a register of political advertising where those placing it would have to make a submission stating where the material was being posted, who was posting it and what the cost was.
“At the moment people are being targeted with political messages if they are thought to be the kind of individuals who might be susceptible to such messages. You or I might not get such messages, but others would. Many people don't realise that they have been singled out to receive such messages, or even that the content they are reading is paid for. If there was a register containing such information, we would at least be in a position to tell people they were being manipulated.”
It would be a start.
Outrageous
Speaking for myself, I find it totally outrageous that someone like Elon Musk, who is not a UK citizen and doesn’t live in the UK, is able to post misinformation intended to disrupt our politics, and that he has allowed speculation to gain currency that he is prepared to donate huge sums to a party that would take his agenda forward and be in the vanguard of the disruption.
This must not be allowed to happen. Our democracy must be defended - and Welsh politicians need to initiate action without delay.
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