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LONDON — Elon Musk could be summoned for a grilling by British MPs over X’s role in race riots that have rocked the U.K. over the last week, as well as his own incendiary comments about the violence.
Labour MPs Chi Onwurah and Dawn Butler, who are competing to chair parliament’s science, innovation and technology committee, both told POLITICO they’d press the billionaire X owner and other technology executives to answer questions about the role of social media platforms amid mounting unrest in the U.K.
Musk has spent days beefing with British politicians over the riots, and is locked in a war of words with Prime Minister Keir Starmer over the U.K’s handling of them. Musk on Sunday wrote “civil war is inevitable” in the U.K. and claimed that the response by U.K. police has been “one-sided.”
Far-right riots have spread across the U.K. following the killing of three young girls in a knife attack on a children’s dance class in Southport last Monday.
Musk’s platform X (formerly Twitter) saw misinformation about the identity of the attacker — wrongly identified as an asylum seeker who had just arrived in the U.K. — spread widely in the immediate aftermath of the attack.
The X boss has also come under fire for re-instating the account of high-profile far-right activist Tommy Robinson, who co-founded the English Defense League.
Both committee hopefuls said they would press for more transparency from X if elected by colleagues to head up the tech scrutiny body.
“The really important points here are the way algorithms of platforms promote and amplify misinformation and the spreading of racial hatred, and how the platforms’ business models rely on that,” Onwurah, who served in a string of roles in Starmer’s Labour opposition team told POLITICO.
The Newcastle upon Tyne MP has already lambasted Musk on the platform for what she called “X’s role in spreading misinformation” and said X has a “responsibility not to incite racial hatred.”
Like Butler, she confirmed that she would press for Musk to appear if she’s elected to chair the Commons committee on Sept. 11.
Butler, the MP for Brent East, told POLITICO the committee must “question all owners of social media platforms.”
She said of X: “It’s a very powerful base, and we need to understand that power and make sure that it’s responsible.”
Butler said she had personally reported “several abusive messages” on the platform only to be told they don’t “reach the threshold” for removal. “We need some transparency in the process,” she added.
Tech defiance
It raises the prospect of a major tussle between Musk and the British parliament.
House of Commons committees have the power to “send for persons, papers and records,” and can, as a last resort, issue a formal summons to attend — but only for people currently in the U.K.
Defiance of a committee’s order can see someone held in contempt of parliament. Overseas tech execs have form in shaking off a grilling, despite the potential reputational hit in doing so.
Famously, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg was summoned by a parliamentary committee as part of an inquiry launched in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica scandal, but he refused to play ball.
At the time, the committee threatened to issue a formal summons the next time Zuckerberg entered the country.
A government minister on Tuesday branded Musk’s comments about “civil war” in the U.K. “deplorable” and said social media companies had a “moral responsibility” to clamp down on content that incited hatred.
