Elon Musk’s X faces no action from UK government over posts encouraging violence in Belfast | belfast

Elon Musk’s

Concerns about the role social media plays in spreading disturbing images and stoking anger continued to grow on Wednesday as police and community leaders called for calm.

They feared a repeat of the violence that occurred on Tuesday evening, when crowds including masked men blocked roads in and around Belfast and torched cars and houses.

The targets of what one Northern Ireland lawmaker called a “race-based pogrom” were from ethnic minorities.

Keir Starmer on Wednesday vowed to crack down on anyone who foments such divisions and said there was no justification for scenes of violence and disorder.

Ministers plan to amend online safety laws to require social media companies to more quickly remove inflammatory content during riots or other crises, but this will not come into effect until mid-July at the earliest.

In the meantime, the government will defer to Ofcom for a formal reprimand against X. The media regulator is awaiting its first quarterly report on the platform’s compliance, but this will not be completed for at least two months.

Further protests took place on Wednesday night after Sudanese refugee Hadi Allodid, 30, was charged with attempted murder of Stephen Ogilvy.

Appearing at Belfast Magistrates’ Court he was also charged with threatening to kill an NHS radiologist and possessing a knife.

Ogilvie’s family, who lost his left eye in the attack, said they were “absolutely shocked” by what happened to him but appealed for calm, refusing to respond to disorderly conduct.

“We are aware of the stories of tensions and protests following this incident,” they said in a statement shared through Philip Brett, Democratic Unionist Party MLA for Belfast North. “We want to make it clear that one night of unrest is not welcome and that peaceful protests are the only way forward.

“We have many immigrants who make invaluable contributions to our country, including to our health care system and services, and we rely on them to run our country. We do not want this terrible tragedy to be used to divide people or stoke hostility.”

Among those forced to leave their homes after Musk and other far-right agitators, including Tommy Robinson, called for protests in response to the attack were two Ugandan care workers, who were rescued after a church pastor pleaded with rioters to force the women to leave.

One of the women, Sumayah Nakazibwe, described a “horrible” ordeal in which she and her housemate, Stella Ariokot, were trapped inside their home as rioters gathered outside and neighboring houses were torched.

“The people who actually riot don’t know that the people they’re targeting are actually caring for their own mothers or grandmothers,” she said.

Late on Wednesday, Labor MP Ruth Anderson, Cabinet Secretary, told the Lords that 27 people had been left homeless after foreigners were targeted.

A former police national counter-terrorism leader has warned that far-right agitation over immigration is the biggest national security threat facing Britain today.

Neil Basu said the way anger is fueled by powerful social media figures and hostile foreign countries represents a greater risk than Islamic terrorism.

Basu said: “The way we talk about immigration is fueling violence in the streets and it’s being fueled by social media. Black and brown people are walking around scared. What the extremists want is a white Britain.”

Meanwhile, senior counsel Jonathan Hall, an independent examiner of terrorism laws, said the arrival of people from countries that have experienced or even engaged in violence could potentially pose a threat to national security and that people had a right to be concerned.

“It is absolutely legal to talk about immigration in the context of national security,” Hall told the BBC.

As clean-up began after a chaotic first night, Science and Technology Minister Liz Kendall said in a statement that updates to online safety laws would be published next week. This will require social media companies to take “faster action to remove illegal content being distributed during the crisis.”

The bill is secondary and does not require a vote, but must be submitted to parliament for 40 days before it takes effect.

On Wednesday, Ofcom published an open letter to

Buildings and cars have been torched in the aftermath of unrest in Belfast this week. Photo: Paul Faith/AFP/Getty Images

Allodid is said to have applied for asylum in Northern Ireland after crossing the border from the largely uncontrolled Republic of Ireland.

The Home Office is understood to be planning to strengthen intelligence-led operations, including facial recognition technology, to detect immigrants who do not have the right to remain in the UK or people with criminal records.

Following the knife attack, far-right activists called for protests, and Musk reposted comments he made last year in which he said violence was inevitable and that people would “fight back or die.”

Northern Ireland’s Justice Minister Naomi Long blamed the violence on online commentators struggling to find Belfast on a map.

She told BBC Radio 4’s Today program that “malicious actors” had incited racism in the city. “What bothers me and disturbs me is that people who, even before yesterday, were struggling to find Belfast on a map, people online, sharing propaganda and encouragement for people, are trying to weaponize the fears that people really have about what has happened and turn this into some kind of anti-immigrant issue or racist protest.”

She added: “At the end of the day, if you’re kicking people out of their homes based on the color of their skin, you can’t dress them any other way. That’s racism.”

Anna Turley, a cabinet minister and Labor leader, also said social media was playing a role in escalating tensions, adding: “There are often bad actors sitting miles away. It’s easy for them to encourage this.”

Belfast residents flee burning homes as violence erupts after protests – video

Asked whether she was referring to Musk, she told Times Radio: “He does not live in the community where we are seeing this type of activity. He is not at risk.”

“He has a responsibility. Everyone in public and civic life has a responsibility to call for calm and not to foment discontent, hatred, division or tension that puts vulnerable people and communities at risk.”

Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey criticized the delay in action on Mr X after using Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday to call for Starmer’s intervention.

He told the Guardian: “This system is clearly not fit for purpose. It is built after delays so that platforms can get away with their obligations for a long time before Ofcom takes action against it.”

Starmer said of Davey in the Commons: “We will crack down on anyone who promotes this division.”

Asked what this meant in practice, Starmer’s spokesperson referred to his actions against X and Grok, saying he would “never hesitate to do something like that again”.

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