this post was submitted on 07 Aug 2024
19 points (100.0% liked)

World News

39110 readers
2256 users here now

A community for discussing events around the World

Rules:

Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.


Lemmy World Partners

News !news@lemmy.world

Politics !politics@lemmy.world

World Politics !globalpolitics@lemmy.world


Recommendations

For Firefox users, there is media bias / propaganda / fact check plugin.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/media-bias-fact-check/

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 

*Musk has spent days beefing with politicians over the far-right unrest sweeping the UK. *

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."

all 43 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] LillyPip@lemmy.ca 9 points 3 months ago

They should. It’s nuts this motherfucker has the influence he does. He’s an actual dipshit who’s only able to do this because he was born into money and failed upwards. He’s a moron with outsized influence. Hold him to account, please.

[–] somenonewho@feddit.org 6 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Less to the point of the article and more to it's wording:

Why the fuck do they call it "race riots" as far as I can tell there are a bunch of rioting fascists and then a broad group of people (refugees, local citizens and Antifa) trying to defend places or stop the riots. This is not a black vs white fight this fight is between fascism and anti-fascism (or at least democracy)

[–] devnev@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Why do you think it's more fascist or than racist? The political "right" of the UK is incredibly anti-immigrant, you can see that in how they've voted for MPs and Brexit. The racial hate is more noticeable towards brown people, i.e. anyone looking anything from Arab to south Asian, there's even the p-word that comes close (but isnt quite) the equivalent of the n-word.

[–] somenonewho@feddit.org 1 points 3 months ago

Sorry I didn't mean to imply that the Nazis aren't racist I definitely know that. For me it's just a different framing between "There are Race riots" (i.e. riots/fights between racial identies) vs fascist/racists rioting because of their racists reasons (and people fighting them in a (self)defense way. I hope I made clear what I meant.

[–] jaemo@sh.itjust.works 5 points 3 months ago

Shitheels has a fucking opinion on how to run everything it seems. Clear sign he should run nothing, since the only thing being actually run is his fucking mouth.

[–] BrightCandle@lemmy.world 5 points 3 months ago

He has clearly been inciting the riots online. Treat him like all the other instigators of this and put out an arrest warrant for terrorism. He should stand in a court room and answer for his actions like everyone else, the billions shouldn't mean he gets to talk to parliament first.

[–] frunch@lemmy.world 5 points 3 months ago (2 children)

Love how this guy's one of the richest people in the world yet he's got nothin better to do than fuck with the common folk. Guess he doesn't get enough attention at home, so here we are watching him stoke racism and stupidity to entertain his pathetic insecure self

[–] roguetrick@lemmy.world 7 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

It's actually so much simpler than that. He's tweaked the Twitter algorithm to serve more right wing brain rot for engagement and, being a habitual user, rotted his own fucking brain more and more. He's indirectly self radicalizing. He's getting high on his own supply.

At least zuck doesn't actually use that shithole called Facebook.

[–] TankovayaDiviziya@lemmy.world 2 points 3 months ago

Love how this guy's one of the richest people in the world yet he's got nothin better to do than fuck with the common folk.

to entertain his pathetic insecure self

To those who have finished watching the first season of Squid Game, this observation is prescient.

Capitalism replaced feudalism; and the new aristocrats are the billionaires.

[–] njm1314@lemmy.world 3 points 3 months ago

As they should. Online grifters should be held accountable for the lives they destroy.

[–] jprice@kbin.run 3 points 3 months ago

If there’s any group that needs to be taken out, it’s the PayPal mafia of Theil and Musk.

[–] Badeendje@lemmy.world 2 points 3 months ago (1 children)

And he will just politely decline.

[–] phdepressed@sh.itjust.works 1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

"Politely" is doubtful. Same guy who told his advertisers to go fuck themselves and now is suing them for not using his platform anymore.

[–] Badeendje@lemmy.world 1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Sarcasm does not translate well in writing.. but I refuse to use /s.. but yes.

[–] dactylotheca@suppo.fi -1 points 3 months ago (2 children)

Love it that you're getting downvoted for this highly controversial comment.

Proof #52895167698 that downvotes shouldn't even be a thing

Nah. Downvotes should exist to show how unpopular radical or extremist views really are. It doesn't apply here obviously, but I think the reason Meta and Twitter etc. are so negative/toxic is because you can't discourage that content on popular posts. It just looks like there's fewer likes.

[–] Badeendje@lemmy.world 1 points 3 months ago

Yeah.. really hurtful all those negative internet points. I don't care though. They do serve as sort of a thermometer of the comment. But in this case.. it makes me smile.

[–] abbiistabbii@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 3 months ago

Let's fucking go. Drag this fucker Infront of parliament.

[–] mrmule@lemmy.world 1 points 3 months ago

Why not just block that whole dumpster fire

[–] Embarrassingskidmark@lemmy.world 1 points 3 months ago

I think we should strap Elon Musk to one of his rockets & launch him directly into the sun... Or maybe just like a big wall, that might be more entertaining.

[–] hungryphrog@lemmy.blahaj.zone 0 points 3 months ago (1 children)

What has that fucker done again?!

[–] Will420@lemmy.world 1 points 3 months ago

Added to the false narrative that the killer of three little girls at a Taylor Swift themed party at a holiday daycare center. Was a migrant who had just gotten off a small boat and was on an MI5/MI6 watchlist. Which has ledt to a few relatively sporadic race riots from the far right. And now saying that Civil War in the UK is inevitable.

[–] Etterra@lemmy.world 0 points 3 months ago (2 children)

I doubt they could do it since Musky is a US citizen. I didn't know the laws for this kind of thing though, so maybe they could with the right kind of legalese?

[–] dev_null@lemmy.ml 3 points 3 months ago

I guess he can ignore a court summons, but then he can never enter the UK again, which he might want to do at some point.

[–] UniquesNotUseful@lemmy.world 1 points 3 months ago

They have some powers, they got upset at Facebook and decided to flex a bit by sending one of the boys around, to invite one of his mates for a chat.

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/nov/24/mps-seize-cache-facebook-internal-papers

The person sent was the serjeant at arms. They carry a sword. Doubt they took it out but they also carry one of the House of Commons maces, which is gold covered and jewel encrusted, about 1.5m (4.9ft) long and weighs roughly 10kg (22 lbs).

Imagine some large, pissed off looking dude, dressed like he’s from the year 1415, kicking your hotel door in because you didn’t RSPV properly. Then being told hand over documents or we may stick you in jail (and you know the pretended it would be the Tower of London).

The 1,000 yard stare he must get when asked if he enjoyed London and how lovely that history must be.

[–] nifty@lemmy.world 0 points 3 months ago (2 children)

Under what law would the UK govt do this though? I am not sure it’s a great idea since Musk is a private citizen and not a government actor. Would any govt then extend this precedent to any viral comment? Like the person who made the JD Vance couch comment?

OTOH, Musk is in a unique position because of his money and influence, that a normal commentator does not have. So I don’t know, but seems like a legal quagmire.

If however Musk is shown to funnel money to UK PACs persons or parties via any means, then the UK govt has a case to question him as a hostile foreign operator. But otherwise it seems like a tricky scenario. Perhaps the same legalities around the Assange case extend to this? But Assange was a sympathetic figure in many respects. I am not sure Musk has the same freedom of press and speech justifications.

[–] Obi@sopuli.xyz 2 points 3 months ago

Free speech in the UK does not include hate speech or inciting violence, so that's probably all they need, doesn't matter that he's an individual, in fact it probably makes it much simpler since that makes it not a diplomatic issue.

[–] WarlordSdocy@lemmy.world 1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I think it's more over the fact that he runs the platform and therefore if his platform helped stoke the flames that caused this then it's completely valid for him to be brought in to be questioned about his involvement and what X will do in the future to combat racism and misinformation.

[–] tiefling@lemmy.blahaj.zone 0 points 3 months ago (1 children)

what X will do in the future to combat racism and misinformation.

Laughable

[–] WarlordSdocy@lemmy.world 1 points 3 months ago

Yeah the answer is obviously nothing cause it's Elon but still it's the same type of thing when the US brings in people like Zuckerberg to talk about what their platforms are doing.

[–] crapwittyname@lemm.ee 0 points 3 months ago

DO IT YOU FUCKING COWARDS

[–] Novman@feddit.it -1 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (3 children)

Not from uk, but do you really believe that one person comment or a single criminal event can cause such a mess? It is like saying the troubles were caused by a speech of ian paisley. In uk you have huge examples of revolts/wars between different populations ( irish/english/welsh/scottish ) but this time is a comment the cause... seeing from outside it seems ... weird

[–] fellowmortal@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 3 months ago

Thanks for your uninformed opinion/question thing. I'll assume that you are asking in good faith and simply don't know... much about the UK.

He isn't the root cause, but he chose to insert himself by encouraging violence when he hasn't a fucking clue what he's talking about either...

[–] symthetics@lemmy.world 1 points 3 months ago

You seems surprised and yet Trump has been charged with almost the same thing for inciting the Jan 6th riots.

[–] ticklesyourinsides@lemmy.world 1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

He owns the site. The site is a shit hole of hate and it spreads lies. So yes he should be held accountable.

[–] Novman@feddit.it -1 points 3 months ago

Any media spread hate against other groups/spread lies. Or you have even read any newspaper in the past 100 years. I read reddit and i read the worst things about adversarial groups any day. Sometime even war crimes apologies, a post was so terrible that could be used as a war crimes proff ( a drone targeting and killing a medical unit doing their work during wartime ). But it is very rare that this kind of speech cause some riots. Ex: never heard of democrats targeting republicans with riots in USA. The strange thing is that russians tell that usa and uk are using the social to promote colored revolutions ( and is x is between them ). So X is an instrument of CIA / MI5 or a russian asset? When the troubles erupted were more simple time.

[–] Warl0k3@lemmy.world -2 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (5 children)

Yeeeeah no. As much as I despise musk, the UK doesn't get to call a US citizen into parliment, we fought a war about that one.

(So uh, just as an aside, go after his business interests. You'll nail that fucker to the wall if you snag his UK investments. We haven't gotten around to fighting the war against capitalism...)

[–] Will420@lemmy.world 1 points 3 months ago

As a businessman with major companies operating in the UK. Who is inciting racial hatred and riots. Parliament has a right to request him to appear. I don't believe that they can even order a UK private citizen to appear before them. Unless they're a civil servant.

[–] Quill7513@slrpnk.net 1 points 3 months ago

There's a difference between a request and a subpoena. Right now They're discussing basically politely asking. If they want to subpoena him they'll have to make an extradition request, at which point America will look over the details of the case and decide if they want to cooperate. It happens literally all the time. Sometimes we cooperate. Sometimes we don't. Usually because Britain is our ally, we cooperate.

[–] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

the UK doesn’t get to call a US citizen into parliment, we fought a war about that one.

I know American history classes suck, but I didn't realize they sucked this badly.

Parliament can call summon anyone they like anywhere in the world. Whether or not the person they summon is required to go depends on local laws.

Believe it or not, even if the U.S. had a "you can't summon us to parliament, so there" clause in the Constitution, the British could say "fuck your constitution" and do the summoning anyway.

[–] unexposedhazard@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

Dude has rot in his brain like damn. Yes he can always just run away, but that wont improve his situation. If you dont answer when you are accused, the sentencing will happen without you. If the UK and EU ban twitter, he wont like that, so its in his own best interest to show up.

If you wanna do business somewhere, you will answer to the laws of that place or deal with the consequences.

[–] xmunk@sh.itjust.works 1 points 3 months ago

You do realize that Musk is a citizen of two commonwealth countries (in addition to the fact that parliament can demand whatever the fuck they want - and that doesn't necessarily mean it will happen).