Are governments afraid of Elon Musk? It seems a legitimate question, given the lukewarm reactions to the X, Tesla and SpaceX owner's increasing insults of political leaders in several countries. He went so far as to compare Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to Hitler in February 2022, during the "freedom convoy," the anti-vaccine movement led by truck drivers, and his social media platform is accused of having played a major role in the racist riots that hit the United Kingdom from July 30 to early August, with no real consequences for him. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer remained very measured in his responses even when he was directly criticized by Musk throughout the week of August 5.

Yet there's little doubt that X and Musk himself are partly responsible for the outbreak of violence across the Channel, according to experts in online hate and the British press. In reactivating the accounts of figures from the extreme far right in 2022, such as the influential founder of the far-right English Defence League, Tommy Robinson, "He [Elon Musk] sort of opened the doors of Arkham Asylum [where dangerous criminals are locked up in the Batman universe] and made it a safe space for racists and bigots," said Imran Ahmed, director of the NGO Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH). "Since then, he has also revealed himself to be the Joker-in-Chief, the great disseminator of misinformation." Indeed, the X boss has himself shared images taken out of context or completely false information about the situation in the country to his nearly 200 million subscribers.

But sanctioning X or its owner is not so simple for the British authorities. Having left the European Union (EU), the UK does not benefit from the Digital Services Act (DSA), the main European regulation governing social media. Thierry Breton, the European commissioner for the internal market, pointed out that the text provides for a crisis mechanism that can require platforms to take action. "The DSA is beginning to be the envy of many, including in the US," explained his office. "The British also see the advantages of having clear regulation."

As an indirect consequence, many European officials now consider that the regulation of X is a matter for the EU. And they prefer to refer questions on this point to Brussels, where Breton, in charge of implementing the DSA, is one of the few political leaders who has no qualms about responding to Musk directly – on X. In the balance of power with the major platforms, "politics obviously also plays a role, and it's only logical that Thierry Breton should take this on," according to his office.

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