Exclusive Echoing objections to social-media fueled violence from the government of the United Kingdom and others, the Chamber of Progress, a tech business advocacy group, is urging billionaire Elon Musk to take his leadership role at X more seriously or resign if he cannot do so.
Since July 29 when right-wing influencers made false claims on Twitter and other social media platforms that blamed the stabbing murder of three children on Muslims and immigrants, dozens of far-right riots have erupted around the nation.
Groups like the Institute for Strategic Dialogue and Amnesty International have blamed posts on social media services such as X, Telegram, and TikTok for amplifying racial hatred and inciting violent unrest, which were followed by counter-protests, both peaceful and destructive.
And UK Justice Minister Heidi Alexander on Tuesday urged Musk to behave more responsibly following Musk's quip that "civil war is inevitable" in response to a post about the violence.
On Wednesday, Ofcom, the UK telecom regulator, published an open letter advising online service providers of current and pending obligations to prevent their platforms from being used to promote violence and hatred.
"Under Ofcom's regulations that pre-date the Online Safety Act, UK-based video-sharing platforms must protect their users from videos likely to incite violence or hatred," said Gill Whitehead, Ofcom Group Director for Online Safety. "We therefore expect video-sharing platforms to ensure their systems and processes are effective in anticipating and responding to the potential spread of harmful video material stemming from the recent events."
Whitehead advised service providers that while they face new content moderation duties soon under the Online Safety Act, the time to act is now. (It was further reported this week that the online act, which comes into force next year, may be unable to sufficiently tackle anti-immigration lies on social media anyway.)
Amid all this, the Chamber of Progress plans to join the chorus calling for Musk to moderate his speech and his platform. In a letter [PDF] provided to The Register in advance of publication, Kayvan Hazemi-Jebelli, senior director for the Chamber of Progress in Europe, calls on Musk to consider the impact of his words.
"The recent far-right race riots in the UK, spurred by false claims about the Southport stabbings, highlight the moral duty of each individual using these platforms, especially those with hundreds of millions of followers like yourself, to act responsibly," Hazemi-Jebelli's letter says.
Your comments that 'civil war is inevitable' run dangerously close to attempted justification for further violence and destruction
"You have an influential position in tech and media, and control X, a mainstream social media platform where nearly 200 million users follow your commentary. You therefore carry a heightened responsibility not to personally amplify content that will provoke violence, the destruction of property, and the possible loss of human life. Sadly, you have failed to meet that bar.
"Since the anti-immigrant attack began, you have parroted far-right talking points, minimized the gravity of the harm, mocked the UK’s policing efforts in response to these riots, and driven further division. Your comments that 'civil war is inevitable' run dangerously close to attempted justification for further violence and destruction."
According to The Financial Times, Xitter has been less responsive than Google, Meta, and TikTok to social media posts flagged by the UK's National Security Online Information Team.
X, when it was known as Twitter, cut back on content moderation staff following Musk's October 2022 takeover of the company. But in the start of 2024, the biz decided it needed to staff up its content moderation group amid regulatory scrutiny.
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The Register asked X to comment and received the company's auto-responder reply, "Busy now, please check back later," the successor boilerplate to what was previously just a scatological emoji. The fact that the company doesn't take inquiries about matters of public interest seriously reflects the attitude of its management.
The Chamber of Progress is supported by major Silicon Valley tech firms including Amazon, Apple, Google, and Meta, to name a few. These firms did not ask the group to make an appeal to Musk, according to director of communications Chris MacKenzie.
Leaders should lead by example. We're encouraging Musk personally to set a better example
MacKenzie said that while Musk tanking his own platform probably benefits the group's partners by driving reasonable people to other platforms, the group's letter represent an effort to support calls for responsible content moderation from other sectors.
"This comes in the context of a global debate about how online platforms should moderate content," said MacKenzie. "We have a lot of thoughts on that. One is that leaders should lead by example. We're encouraging Musk personally to set a better example."
MacKenzie's suggestion that Musk's behavior tarnishes the entire industry offers another clue as to why the Chamber of Progress is trying to temper Musk's trolling: Online rabble-rousing is bad for online business and may lead to unwanted regulation.
When social media platforms incite violence and protests, legislators face more pressure to respond to calls from civil society groups like Amnesty International to ban social media data gathering and subject algorithms "to strict regulatory oversight." ®
