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Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey has ramped up his calls for far-right US billionaire Elon Musk and his platform X to face prosecution, in an interview with Byline Times.
Elon Musk has threatened legal action against Sir Ed in recent days after the Lib Dem leader branded him a “criminal” for his alleged incitement of violence on Britain’s streets at the recent Tommy Robinson rally in London, and for allowing hate speech and child sexual abuse to run rampant on his platform.
Speaking to this outlet from the party’s Autumn conference in Bournemouth on Monday, Davey said: “I’m afraid the X platform being run by Elon Musk looks like it’s breaking the law, and he needs to be held to account.”
“Just because he’s a wealthy man who’s found himself very powerful doesn’t mean he’s beyond the law. The Online Safety Act, which is the law I think he and X have broken by allowing videos of child sexual abuse to appear on their platform and promoting grooming and self-harm, is a law that he hates because it’s going to hit him in his pocket.”
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Davey added that “only Nigel Farage” is saying the Prime Minister should get rid of the Online Safety Act, which introduces tough new standards for platforms to clamp down on illegal content, and material which harms children.
“Nigel Farage looks like he’s sucking up to tech billionaires like Elon Musk. That would make a wild west of social media in our country, and it means more children, young people and families are exposed to this appalling material,” the former coalition minister added.
Asked if he planned to fight any legal threats from Musk, Davey said: “We’re not worried about that. I think we’re speaking up for the vast majority of British people who don’t want this stuff and want powerful people to be held to account.”
“We’re not going to allow this tech billionaire from the United States to interfere in our country and damage the welfare of our children,” he said.
Davey pointed to Musk’s comments that “civil war is inevitable” in the UK. “It’s bad enough that he calls for the overthrow of the democratically elected Government or incites violence. This is not a man who cares about Britain. He doesn’t care about people. He certainly doesn’t care about our children,” the Lib Dem leader claimed.
However, asked why the Lib Dems remained paying members of X, Davey said: “While he owns the platform, he should face the full force of the law. [But] I’m not going to deplatform myself. I want to be there taking him on and taking on the sorts of ideas that he promotes with his algorithms, which sow division and hatred. It’s right that politicians are there arguing back against him.”
Davey did recently “deplatform” himself by refusing an invite to Donald Trump’s state dinner during last week’s UK visit.
But Davey claimed the two scenarios were not comparable: “Having had this huge honour to go to six state banquets before, I know you never get to speak to the visiting head of state. I wouldn’t have had a chance to speak to Trump. But by doing what I did, I actually changed the debate in the country.”
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He added: “I was saying…