Elon Musk ‘accountable to no one,’ UK tech minister says

Elon Musk is “the one person who is accountable to no one” and his impact on public discourse should not be underestimated, the U.K.’s technology minister said in an interview with the Times newspaper, adding to recent criticisms of the technology billionaire from senior government officials.

Peter Kyle, secretary of science, innovation and technology, said in the interview, which was published Wednesday, that Musk has the power to influence major world affairs — even the war between Russia and Ukraine.

Kyle added that the relationship Britain has with companies such as X and other major social media firms, “is much more akin to the negotiations with fellow secretaries of state in other countries, simply because of the scale and scope that they have.”

His comments, which were made before the recent riots in the U.K., follow Sunday’s controversial remarks from Musk about British affairs. The entrepreneur, who owns the X social media site and is CEO of electric vehicle maker Tesla, made a post on his platform suggesting immigration would lead to civil war in the U.K.

Kyle is not the only government official levelling criticism at Musk. On Monday, the British prime minister’s official spokesperson said there was “no justification” for comments like those made by X’s owner and chairman.

Meanwhile, Heidi Alexander, U.K. courts minister, on Tuesday said in response to Musk’s comments that anyone with a platform on social media should “behave responsibly” with that platform and that language associating the riots with civil war is “totally unjustified.”

Kyle has held conversations with social media firms including TikTok, Facebook’s parent company Meta, Google and X in relation to the riots, to remind them of their responsibility to tackle misinformation online.

The U.K. last year passed the Online Safety Act, a landmark law that seeks to ramp up enforcement on illegal and harmful content on the internet.

However, media and telecommunications watchdog Ofcom, which is the regulator tasked with enforcing the law, is unable to take action against companies for allowing harmful posts inciting the ongoing riots as not all the powers from the act have come into force yet.

Ofcom told CNBC it is moving quickly to implement the act so that it can be enforced as soon as possible, however, new duties on tech firms requiring them by law to actively police their platforms won’t fully come into force until 2025.

Tesla’s press office did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Musk.

For more on Kyle’s comments about Musk, you can read the original Times report here.