Musk Posts Generated 64 Million Views Inciting Belfast Riots, Analysis Shows
Elon Musk’s activity on the social media platform X generated 64 million views on content inciting anti-immigrant riots in Belfast and Glengormley, according to analysis by the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH). The unrest saw individuals attack foreign nationals and police.
In total, CCDH tracked 115 million views on posts urging people to participate in the riots. Musk, who owns X, was responsible for 55 percent of those views, counting posts he made directly as well as those he amplified from other accounts.
Among the posts he shared were calls for repeated public disorder. He wrote that only by protesting repeatedly and loudly would there be any change. He also boosted messages from Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, who uses the name Tommy Robinson, and MP Rupert Lowe.
Replies to posts by Musk, Robinson, and Lowe included more than 3,900 comments that advocated lynchings and other violent crimes against immigrants in Belfast, CCDH said.
While Musk’s online activity stirred violence in Northern Ireland, his company SpaceX simultaneously raised 75 billion dollars in an initial public offering that valued the firm at two trillion dollars. The fundraising, driven by investor enthusiasm for his space exploration visions, occurred in the same week as the Belfast riots.