In a troubling incident, American billionaire Elon Musk shared false information on his social media platform X (formerly Twitter).
Spreading Fake News
In this post Musk claimed that British Prime Minister Keir Starmer intended to urgently build detention camps in the Falkland Islands for far-right protesters recently arrested in the UK.
According ot Digi24 this fake news, which Musk presented as a headline supposedly published by the British newspaper The Telegraph, was quickly debunked.
A simple Google search revealed that no such headline had ever existed.
Moreover, The Telegraph clarified that it had never published an article with the claimed title. The false image was originally shared by Ashlea Simon, co-chair of the far-right British party Britain First, and Musk amplified it on his platform.
Seen by Two Million Users
Although Musk deleted the misleading post after about an hour, during which it was seen by two million users, the damage was already done. The original post by Simon remains on X, albeit now accompanied by a "community note" indicating that the content is false.
The spread of this misinformation comes at a particularly tense time in the UK. Violent protests have erupted in several cities following a deadly knife attack in Southport, which left three young girls dead.
The protests were fueled by rumors regarding the religion of the attacker, 17-year-old Axel Rudakubana.
