Following posts attacking the U.K. government on his X social media platform, Elon Musk is reported to have come to the attention of the British Homeland Security Group, which is reportedly monitoring his output in the cause of national security. Here’s what we know so far.
Elon Musk X Postings Come Under National Security Scrutiny In The U.K.
The Mirror newspaper and the BBC have reported that tweets, or more accurately X postings as they are known now, by the social media platform owner and free speech absolutist Elon Musk are being monitored by a U.K. Home Office agency tasked with reducing national security risks.
This follows numerous recent X postings in which Elon Musk has gone on the offensive regarding reports into child abuse grooming gangs in Britain and the response of the Labour government led by Sir Kier Starmer. The U.K. Prime Minister has already responded, without naming Musk directly, to “those who are spreading lies and misinformation as far and as wide as possible,” in the hope that “the media will amplify it.”
The media, in this case the Mirror and the BBC, however, are now amplifying unnamed sources that have confirmed the Home Office and the Homeland Security Group within it. The Mirror said it understood that “extra monitoring to assess content and the reach of what is being shared on social media site X,” while the BBC said that Elon Musk is being monitored “along with other accounts that also have large numbers of followers.”
The Homeland Security Group, which was previously called the Office for Security and Counter Terrorism, has a brief to “reduce national security risks to the UK’s people, prosperity and freedoms” and “focuses on the highest harm risks to the homeland, whether from terrorists, state actors, or cyber and economic criminals,” according to the Home Office.
This is a developing story and I will update it when more information is forthcoming. I have approached Elon Musk and X for a statement.
