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Elon Musk continues to shout misinformation about grooming gangs through his X loudhailer.
In 2015, a comprehensive, statutory, Independent Inquiry into Child Sex Abuse (IICSA) was set up, chaired by Professor Alexis Jay, with the last report published in October 2022.
In the 89 weeks between that report and the General Election, I understand that the previous government implemented none of the recommendations of the inquiry.
Now that we have a government promising to implement those recommendations, Musk’s loudhailer and even some political parties are saying that the important thing is not to implement these recommendations but to waste time having another inquiry.
By contrast, Professor Jay wants the UK to act.
As the world starts to try to rein in social media’s appalling capacity for spreading harm and hatred, misinformation and disinformation, the owner of X shouts that the UK’s safeguarding minister, Jess Phillips – who is getting on with the task of implementing those recommendations – is a ‘rape genocide apologist’.
So why is Musk saying what he does? Is it for political power in the US, where the ‘antisocial’ media are desperate to ditch their responsibilities for fact-checking, in favour of ‘free speech’?
Or is it simply rage-baiting – shouting lies as loudly as he can to make himself a colossal profit from the number of decent people who go on to X to decry such abuse of real free speech? Tim, Kent
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Malik’s description of how his identity as a British Muslim student makes him feel under siege (MetroTalk, Wed) should shame those seeking to demonise immigrants from a particular culture or religion because of the criminal actions of just a few.
As he very correctly points out, ‘the Home Office’s own research from 2020 highlights that the majority of offenders in group-based child sexual exploitation cases are white and that no community or culture is “uniquely exposed to offending”.’
Politicians on all sides must therefore stick to the facts.
Social media users must do the same. The spreading of misinformation is a dangerous tool and it serves only to divide, rather than unite, the different communities of Britain’s towns and cities.
We have much more in common than what divides us, and this is what we should all be focussing on at the start of the new year. There is enough division in this world of ours, without the politicians and citizens of Britain adding to it. Al Charlton, via email
I wholeheartedly agree with Malik that politicians – those from the far-right – are using the horrific grooming attacks to demonise all of the Muslim community.
I suspect they are coming from a position of hate and division rather than any genuine concern for the victims. It is telling that most are cheerleaders for the US president elect – a man who has been publicly accused of rape, sexual assault and sexual harassment by at least 26 women and was recorded boasting of groping women. Neil, York
Elon Musk has gone nuclear, the Tories have been ‘weaponising trauma’ and Farage wants an inquiry targeting ‘Pakistani men’. But here’s an elephant-in-the-room question: if the grooming gangs being discussed were white and English would there be the same response?
We all know that over the decades there have been countless paedophile rings, plus grooming gangs and celebrities sniffing around kiddy porn – all criminals with white faces. So, yet again, the surface is scratched and the outpouring of racist ramblings completely overshadows and cancels out the horrendous experience of the victims, as they did with the Southport stabbing tragedy. Utterly disgusting and with a large dollop of low-IQ mania on top. Heather Wallace-Brown, London
How can anyone accept Musk is serious about sexual crimes when he previously branded someone a paedophile as a joke?
Vernon Unsworth, the hero who rescued Thai teenagers from a flooded cave, described Musk as a ‘bully billionaire’ after the tech mogul called him a ‘pedo guy’. And what caused Musk to lash out at Unsworth? Because his idea to use a mini-submarine for the rescue was rejected. Talk about petty and spiteful. Sam Missford, via Metro.co.uk
So Donald Trump wants to annexe Canada and invade Greenland and Panama? His plan for world domination is promoted by propaganda minister Elon Musk, who is already planning to replace Sir Keir Starmer with Tommy Robinson.
If the rest of the world want to oppose these plans, we should boycott everything American, and especially Tesla cars. Martin J Phillips, Leeds
