TechScape: Why Musk’s rabble-rousing shows the limits of social media laws.

It seems that the famous multi-billionaire owner of X (formerly known as Twitter) has recently been having fun fomenting turmoil and tension regarding new UK legislation on his own platform. During the first week of August, the Canadian entrepreneur behind Tesla, X and OpenAI decided to use the mentioned social media to share posts, memes and fake news regarding the British government.

Musk shared an alleged Telegraph article about plans to send far-right rioters to ‘emergency detention camps’ in the Falklands, which was clearly false. He deleted the post after half an hour, having however already reached almost two million views. The entrepreneur did not issue an apology, continuing to share content criticising the British government and the police response to the ongoing unrest.

In the aftermath of the social unrest caused by Elon Musk, several industry critics have stressed the need to urgently strengthen Britain's Online Safety Act of 2023, and to remind the individual in question of the criminal liability of his actions under current laws.