UK security officials monitor Elon Musk’s social media posts

UK officials are monitoring social media posts by Elon Musk and others as a possible security risk.

The monitoring is being carried out by a team in the Home Office’s Homeland Security group, which is responsible for reducing national security risks and, according to a government website, “focuses on the highest harm risks to the homeland”.

They are looking at the reach of posts and who is engaging with them.

The Home Office declined to comment.

But a source told the BBC said it was being done to make sure they were on top of whatever challenges were being posed by “non-state actors”.

The monitoring of Musk’s social media output, first revealed by the Daily Mirror, is understood to have begun after he made comments about Safeguarding Minister Jess Phillips.

The US tech billionaire, who renamed Twitter X when he bought the company, called Phillips a “rape genocide apologist” and said she should be jailed.

The Labour minister, who ran a domestic abuse refuge before becoming an MP and has long campaigned to tackle violence against women, told the BBC threats to her had increased as a result of the post.

The BBC has confirmed that officials in the Home Office are monitoring the social media posts of Musk, who is an adviser to US President-elect Donald Trump, along with other accounts that also have large numbers of followers.

Over the past week, Musk has been attacking the UK government over rejecting a fresh inquiry into grooming gangs, with the PM insisting victims need “action” not more inquiries.

The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse, which lasted seven years and made 20 recommendations, reported in 2022 under the Conservative government but none of the recommendations have yet been implemented.

On Monday, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper set out action she would be taking on three recommendations.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has criticised what he described “lies and misinformation” around historic child sex abuse investigations.

He has also robustly defended his record as Director of Public Prosecutions on his work to tackle child abuse and sexual exploitation, which included bringing the first prosecution of an “Asian grooming gang” in Rochdale and prosecuting the highest number of child sexual abuse cases on record.

Reform UK MP Rupert Lowe, who has been praised by Musk, has asked the Home Office for the cost of the reported probe to taxpayers by the counter-extremism unit.

He said: “I have asked the Home Office how many of Musk’s posts have been investigated, for what reason, by how many officers and at what cost to the taxpayer.

“They will spy on Musk’s online activity, but no inquiry into thousands of foreign rapists. Pathetic.”