WEBVTT - How Elon Musk shapes politics 0:00:01.320 --> 0:00:02.360 From Schwartz Media. 0:00:02.800 --> 0:00:11.960 I'm Ruby Jones. This is seven am. Elon Musk's new 0:00:11.960 --> 0:00:15.040 obsession began on New Year's Eve, and in the weeks 0:00:15.080 --> 0:00:18.000 that followed he fired off thousands of posts on his 0:00:18.079 --> 0:00:22.720 social media platform X about British politics, decades old sex 0:00:22.760 --> 0:00:27.159 abuse scandal, and a man named Tommy Robinson. Now the 0:00:27.160 --> 0:00:30.680 British government's agenda has stalled as the Prime Minister faces 0:00:30.760 --> 0:00:34.760 questions about the conspiracy theories Musk is pushing. It's a 0:00:34.800 --> 0:00:38.479 stark example of how the world's richest man can influence 0:00:38.520 --> 0:00:41.640 politics in any country, and comes at a time when 0:00:41.720 --> 0:00:45.440 competitors like Mark Zuckerberg are trying to copy Musk's playbook. 0:00:46.200 --> 0:00:49.479 Today contributor to The Saturday Paper el Hardy on how 0:00:49.600 --> 0:00:59.360 Musk and Zuckerberg are reshaping the Internet and democracy. It's Tuesday, 0:00:59.680 --> 0:01:08.880 January fourteen, So elle on ex Elon Musk is posting 0:01:09.200 --> 0:01:12.720 a lot about a man called Tommy Robinson. So to 0:01:12.760 --> 0:01:15.960 begin with, what can you tell me about Tommy Robinson? 0:01:16.319 --> 0:01:19.920 Tommy and Robinson's a pretty unpleasant dude. He's actually in 0:01:19.959 --> 0:01:22.560 prison at the moment for eighteen months on contempt of 0:01:22.600 --> 0:01:29.959 court charge. He came to prominence in Britain in two 0:01:30.040 --> 0:01:30.839 thousand and nine. 0:01:31.160 --> 0:01:34.880 Robinson first became known more than a decade ago by 0:01:34.959 --> 0:01:39.160 leading chaotic rallies with the self styled English Defense Lead. 0:01:40.319 --> 0:01:45.080 Their animating issue was being anti Muslim and anti immigration 0:01:46.280 --> 0:01:50.559 any man in this punt. He had quite a strong 0:01:50.600 --> 0:01:53.240 following in the UK and he was a very prominent figure, 0:01:53.320 --> 0:01:56.520 but his influence did start to wane as he was 0:01:56.560 --> 0:02:01.600 slowly deplatformed from things like face Book and Twitter back 0:02:01.640 --> 0:02:06.280 in the day, until Elon Musk reinstated his ex account 0:02:06.520 --> 0:02:10.160 in November twenty twenty three as part of his commitment 0:02:10.320 --> 0:02:13.920 to freedom of speech in letting people back onto the 0:02:13.919 --> 0:02:15.920 platform that had previously been banned. 0:02:16.240 --> 0:02:18.480 Okay, and so tell me what Elon Musk has been 0:02:18.520 --> 0:02:19.959 posting it about him. 0:02:20.720 --> 0:02:23.960 Musk seems to have become kind of obsessed with Tommy 0:02:24.040 --> 0:02:26.360 Robinson ever since New Year's Eve. 0:02:26.600 --> 0:02:29.720 Now the Labor Party has caused an international ferrari a 0:02:29.840 --> 0:02:33.240 huge backlash at the Charlie Peters from gb News revealed 0:02:33.280 --> 0:02:36.639 it will block a full inquiry into the Oldham rape 0:02:36.760 --> 0:02:37.600 gang scandal. 0:02:37.800 --> 0:02:41.200 O News Eve, a report from the right wing British 0:02:41.200 --> 0:02:45.480 news channel gb News came to Elon Musk's attention about 0:02:45.560 --> 0:02:50.560 some historical allegations of child grooming gangs in the UK. 0:02:51.000 --> 0:02:54.000 It was a really big problem in the two thousands 0:02:54.000 --> 0:02:57.000 of twenty tens and there've been a number of large 0:02:57.120 --> 0:03:01.240 national inquiries into the problem. But gb News sort of 0:03:01.320 --> 0:03:04.920 beat up a story out of nothing, saying that a 0:03:05.120 --> 0:03:08.200 particular small town in the north of England was calling 0:03:08.200 --> 0:03:12.000 for a fresh inquiry into further allegations about child grooming 0:03:12.000 --> 0:03:16.000 gangs and the UK government were going to launch a 0:03:16.040 --> 0:03:18.560 new inquiry even though they just had one in twenty 0:03:18.600 --> 0:03:19.119 twenty two. 0:03:19.320 --> 0:03:22.320 This comes as the ki Stormers attacked over his handling 0:03:22.680 --> 0:03:26.040 of the Oldham grooming gang scandal when he was head 0:03:26.080 --> 0:03:27.600 of the Crown Prosecution Service. 0:03:27.919 --> 0:03:31.520 With later but this really became a story about the 0:03:31.520 --> 0:03:36.200 perception that the Labor government is scared of taking action 0:03:37.000 --> 0:03:39.960 on issues such as pedophilia, on issues to do with 0:03:40.360 --> 0:03:44.960 potential crimes by immigrants in the country. And Elon Musk 0:03:45.000 --> 0:03:49.520 became interested in Tobby Robertson's case as it was connected 0:03:50.200 --> 0:03:54.000 to the grooming gang scandal very loosely in that Robinson 0:03:54.120 --> 0:03:57.200 was someone who was always talking about this in the media. 0:03:57.240 --> 0:03:59.080 There's a total duty of police and operation in this 0:03:59.160 --> 0:04:01.160 app where they get away of what they want, the 0:04:01.160 --> 0:04:03.320 exac community get away of what they want. The police 0:04:03.320 --> 0:04:05.760 do not know how to deal with these problems. I 0:04:05.840 --> 0:04:07.920 went on saying that they use drugs as a weapon 0:04:08.000 --> 0:04:11.720 against our community to get our children into Peter Felix practices, 0:04:12.360 --> 0:04:14.280 which is what was now known as grooming. 0:04:15.400 --> 0:04:20.240 So Elon became interested in Robinson's case and has started 0:04:20.240 --> 0:04:23.920 posting things like free Tommy Robinson now. And he's been 0:04:24.000 --> 0:04:26.800 falsely implying that his imprisonment has something to do with 0:04:26.920 --> 0:04:31.080 exposing the grooming gang's scandal in the UK, which Robinson 0:04:31.160 --> 0:04:34.640 didn't and which his imprisonment has nothing to do with. 0:04:35.480 --> 0:04:38.800 And Elon Musk has sort of worked himself into a frenzy. 0:04:39.080 --> 0:04:43.800 The Financial Times counted as of last Thursday, I believe 0:04:44.279 --> 0:04:47.119 that he had tweeted more than eleven hundred and eighty 0:04:47.200 --> 0:04:49.440 times about British politics in one week. 0:04:50.880 --> 0:04:55.680 So by talking about this grooming scandal and stoking the 0:04:55.760 --> 0:04:59.880 kind of the associated racial tensions that come with it, 0:05:00.880 --> 0:05:03.880 what effect is that having on UK politics and on 0:05:03.920 --> 0:05:05.240 the current Prime Minister? 0:05:05.480 --> 0:05:10.200 Kiirstarma kis Starma was the Director of Public Prosecutions when 0:05:10.279 --> 0:05:13.960 some of these grooming events came to light. In fact, 0:05:13.960 --> 0:05:16.640 he did decline to prosecute one case where he said 0:05:16.680 --> 0:05:20.680 that the victim was essentially an unreliable witness. So a 0:05:20.680 --> 0:05:23.560 lot of Starmer's political opponents are trying to tie him 0:05:23.600 --> 0:05:27.880 to the issue, and Musk has been consistently attacking Prime 0:05:27.920 --> 0:05:31.800 Minister Starma on x At one point he said that 0:05:31.960 --> 0:05:34.960 Sarma was deeply complicit in the mass rapes in exchange 0:05:35.000 --> 0:05:39.320 for votes. And he's also advocated that Starma should go 0:05:39.360 --> 0:05:43.440 to prison, and he even suggested that America should liberate 0:05:43.440 --> 0:05:45.960 the people of Britain from their tyrannical government. You know, 0:05:46.000 --> 0:05:50.240 they're derailing the government agenda. I suppose, he'd say, because. 0:05:49.880 --> 0:05:54.000 Those that are spreading lies and misinformation as far and 0:05:54.040 --> 0:06:00.640 as wide as possible are not interested in victims, interested 0:06:00.680 --> 0:06:07.159 in themselves. Those were cheerleading Tommy Robinson, interested in justice. 0:06:07.320 --> 0:06:10.000 The Labor government last week was trying to push through 0:06:10.080 --> 0:06:13.200 a bill to begin debating pushing through some of the 0:06:13.240 --> 0:06:17.400 recommendations from the most recent inquiry that came down in 0:06:17.400 --> 0:06:23.040 twenty twenty two. The opposition party, the Tories, tried to 0:06:23.320 --> 0:06:26.120 attach an amendment saying that they needed a new child 0:06:26.120 --> 0:06:30.440 abuse inquiry because of the fervor that Musk had stoked 0:06:30.440 --> 0:06:31.760 on X But. 0:06:31.760 --> 0:06:36.479 The Conservative leadership under reform MPs marching to the beat 0:06:36.520 --> 0:06:41.240 of Elon Musk's drum, are plainly weaponizing the pain and 0:06:41.279 --> 0:06:45.480 the trauma of victims for their own political aids. 0:06:45.680 --> 0:06:47.960 And the labor government is now saying, well, hang on, 0:06:48.000 --> 0:06:51.039 this is going to slow down US passing reforms for 0:06:51.120 --> 0:06:55.200 child protection. So it really is derailing the whole process, 0:06:55.279 --> 0:06:59.360 and it's controlling the British political narrative. And once again, 0:06:59.400 --> 0:07:02.440 this is really all come from one guy with a 0:07:02.440 --> 0:07:05.320 social media platform who's sitting in the United States. 0:07:05.760 --> 0:07:08.200 Why do you think it is? If you wouldn't mind 0:07:08.400 --> 0:07:11.440 I suppose spelling out how you see this that Elon 0:07:11.640 --> 0:07:17.800 Musk is talking about this particular scandal. Now, obviously it 0:07:17.880 --> 0:07:21.040 happened a long time ago, so what is he trying 0:07:21.200 --> 0:07:22.120 to do here? 0:07:22.440 --> 0:07:26.400 Well, this really fits in the context of Elon Musk's 0:07:26.840 --> 0:07:31.960 recent political far right turn, I suppose he'd say, And 0:07:32.040 --> 0:07:36.120 he appears to have enjoyed I think the success that 0:07:36.200 --> 0:07:40.520 he found in delving into US politics, into becoming a 0:07:40.560 --> 0:07:43.840 major funder for Donald Trump and to you probably helping 0:07:43.880 --> 0:07:47.360 him get elected, and to providing a voice to that 0:07:47.440 --> 0:07:51.240 side of politics on his ex platform, and we're starting 0:07:51.240 --> 0:07:53.680 to see him get more involved in politics in all 0:07:53.680 --> 0:07:57.280 sorts of different countries around the world, particularly in England 0:07:57.440 --> 0:08:02.440 and in Germany. And he's not just supporting traditional conservative 0:08:02.600 --> 0:08:06.680 or right of center parties. He's supporting the furthest right parties. 0:08:07.320 --> 0:08:11.400 So in the UK he's become particularly interested in Reform UK, 0:08:12.000 --> 0:08:15.520 which is Nigel Farag's new political party. Frage used to 0:08:15.560 --> 0:08:19.880 run the UK Independence Party, now that's Reform. Musk had 0:08:19.880 --> 0:08:24.200 already mooted potentially making a large donation to the Reform Party, 0:08:24.760 --> 0:08:28.520 but since Nigel Farrage came out and said that there 0:08:28.560 --> 0:08:31.640 was no room for Tobby Robertson in his party and 0:08:31.680 --> 0:08:34.280 it's something he stood by for a long time, Elon 0:08:34.360 --> 0:08:37.480 Musk then started tweeting that Nigel Farrag is not up 0:08:37.520 --> 0:08:40.440 to the job of leading the party and suggested a 0:08:40.480 --> 0:08:45.160 possible alternative leader. And given that he's already suggested that 0:08:45.559 --> 0:08:47.360 he would like to make a large donation to the 0:08:47.360 --> 0:08:51.360 party and is really pushing their popularity and aims on 0:08:51.400 --> 0:08:54.840 his platform, this could be quite a seismic intervention in 0:08:54.840 --> 0:08:55.760 British politics. 0:08:58.200 --> 0:09:00.880 After the break the other tech Billie there watching and 0:09:01.000 --> 0:09:11.040 learning from Elon musk Elle. While Elon Musk has been 0:09:11.040 --> 0:09:14.560 doing this stoking this anti immigration sentiment in the UK, 0:09:15.520 --> 0:09:19.000 Mark Zuckerberg has also announced some big changes to the 0:09:19.040 --> 0:09:21.800 way that he's going to be running Meta, So can 0:09:21.840 --> 0:09:22.960 you tell me about what he said? 0:09:23.880 --> 0:09:28.319 So last week Zuckerberg made an announcement that offered up 0:09:28.440 --> 0:09:31.679 a series of reforms to Meta, which is much more 0:09:31.679 --> 0:09:33.720 in line with what Musk has been doing at X. 0:09:34.000 --> 0:09:36.960 Here, everyone, I want to talk about something important today 0:09:37.160 --> 0:09:39.240 because it's time to get back to our roots around 0:09:39.320 --> 0:09:41.559 free expression on Facebook and Instagram. 0:09:42.080 --> 0:09:45.400 So they're getting rid of fact checking, which Meta brought 0:09:45.440 --> 0:09:50.280 in in late twenty sixteen in direct response to allegations 0:09:50.280 --> 0:09:55.720 about Facebook's role of disseminating misinformation that helped Trump get elected. 0:09:55.840 --> 0:09:56.120 Truth. 0:09:56.840 --> 0:09:59.560 But the fact checkers have just been too politically biased, 0:10:00.120 --> 0:10:03.120 have destroyed more trust than they've created, especially in the US. 0:10:03.600 --> 0:10:07.480 They're switching to community notes, which is something that must 0:10:07.520 --> 0:10:11.520 introduce to the X platform, which is essentially crowdsourced fact 0:10:11.559 --> 0:10:14.920 checking of posts to say if they're wrong and why 0:10:14.960 --> 0:10:19.200 they're wrong, and linked to more relevant information. They're also 0:10:19.400 --> 0:10:23.679 not going to be policing comments, particularly about gender and immigration, 0:10:23.840 --> 0:10:26.400 which are two very big right wing issues. 0:10:26.640 --> 0:10:29.520 What started as a movement to be more inclusive has 0:10:29.640 --> 0:10:32.800 increasingly been used to shut down opinions and shut out 0:10:32.800 --> 0:10:36.040 people with different ideas, and it's gone too far. So 0:10:36.080 --> 0:10:38.040 I want to make sure that people can share their 0:10:38.080 --> 0:10:39.120 beliefs and experience. 0:10:39.120 --> 0:10:43.040 They've also appointed Dana White, who runs UFC, who's a 0:10:43.120 --> 0:10:48.319 close personal friend of Trump, and they're moving their moderation 0:10:48.520 --> 0:10:52.600 teams from California to Texas purely for the perception that 0:10:52.679 --> 0:10:55.800 people in California tend to me will liberal and that 0:10:55.840 --> 0:10:59.079 Texas is becoming sort of a new home of big tech. 0:11:00.160 --> 0:11:02.440 Okay, and it's hard to see all of this as 0:11:02.800 --> 0:11:06.839 anything else than a way for Zuckerberg to attempt to 0:11:06.880 --> 0:11:10.920 get close to Trump, and in his good books, very much. 0:11:10.760 --> 0:11:15.320 So, and I mean Zuckerberg has very clearly seen Musk's 0:11:15.320 --> 0:11:21.280 success in getting close to the incoming administration and obviously 0:11:21.320 --> 0:11:24.360 what it can do for his companies as well. He 0:11:24.440 --> 0:11:29.439 has been embracing issues that Trump and Musk both speak 0:11:29.480 --> 0:11:33.640 a lot about, such as, you know, liberal censorship, importance 0:11:33.640 --> 0:11:37.160 of freedom of speech, you know, going back to prioritizing 0:11:37.200 --> 0:11:38.200 that freedom of speech. 0:11:38.720 --> 0:11:39.959 And he's been doing. 0:11:39.679 --> 0:11:43.840 It in outlets such as Joe Rogan, which is very 0:11:43.880 --> 0:11:48.200 clearly speaking to that audience of Trump World, of Musk World, 0:11:48.640 --> 0:11:50.560 and of the wider tech industry itself. 0:11:51.080 --> 0:11:55.280 These people from the Biden administration would call up our 0:11:55.320 --> 0:11:58.240 team and like scream at them and curse, and it's like, 0:11:58.280 --> 0:12:00.720 these documents are it's all kind of out there. 0:12:01.160 --> 0:12:02.839 Did you record any of those phone calls? 0:12:02.920 --> 0:12:03.439 I don't know. 0:12:03.480 --> 0:12:05.360 I don't think. I don't think we were, but I 0:12:05.360 --> 0:12:08.559 think listen, I mean, there are emails, the emails are published, 0:12:08.600 --> 0:12:12.280 it's all it's all kind of out there, and they're 0:12:12.320 --> 0:12:15.160 like and basically, it just got to this point where 0:12:15.160 --> 0:12:17.439 we were like, no, we're not gonna We're not gonna 0:12:17.520 --> 0:12:20.360 take down things that are true. That's ridiculous. 0:12:21.200 --> 0:12:24.920 And is this about currying favor with Trump or are 0:12:24.960 --> 0:12:28.560 there other reasons that that he would be seeking to 0:12:28.600 --> 0:12:32.720 be in an alignment with the Trump administration going forward. 0:12:33.080 --> 0:12:36.520 Meta has an anti trust case coming up that's going 0:12:36.559 --> 0:12:39.640 to be heard in April. It's a case from a 0:12:39.679 --> 0:12:43.280 photo sharing app that said it was crushed by the 0:12:43.320 --> 0:12:47.040 Meta Empire, and antitrust is a pretty big deal in 0:12:47.080 --> 0:12:49.160 the US. It's the kind of things that you know, 0:12:49.400 --> 0:12:53.480 they can potentially levy monstrous finds, but they can also 0:12:53.520 --> 0:12:57.400 break up companies. So tech companies are obviously pretty wary 0:12:57.440 --> 0:13:00.719 of this and feeling it very acutely. And I mean, 0:13:00.920 --> 0:13:02.599 it's a pretty good time to get into bed with 0:13:02.920 --> 0:13:07.080 Trump if he's coming in and he's believing in having 0:13:07.120 --> 0:13:10.880 a less powerful state. So in general, the tech industry 0:13:10.960 --> 0:13:14.640 has been very behind the incoming Trump administration and it 0:13:14.640 --> 0:13:16.439 seems like they're going to be pretty big supporters of 0:13:16.520 --> 0:13:17.720 him throughout. 0:13:18.559 --> 0:13:21.280 So, el we have these two men, Mark Zuckerberg and 0:13:21.400 --> 0:13:27.040 Elon Musk dramatically reshaping not only the Internet but politics 0:13:27.040 --> 0:13:29.440 as well. So what do you think the impact of 0:13:29.480 --> 0:13:33.120 this is going to be on how we experience both 0:13:33.120 --> 0:13:37.160 these platforms, but also I suppose how we experience democracy 0:13:37.200 --> 0:13:38.200 in the US and UK. 0:13:38.760 --> 0:13:43.720 Certainly, I mean it shows that American politics is for sale. 0:13:44.280 --> 0:13:47.360 This isn't a particularly new idea, but the fact is 0:13:47.400 --> 0:13:50.040 that you can buy a tremendous amount of power and 0:13:50.080 --> 0:13:53.800 influence due to the way that the United States political 0:13:53.880 --> 0:14:00.000 system operates, and that people are willing to do so and. 0:13:59.040 --> 0:14:02.120 Not covert that. They're very happy to do it proudly 0:14:02.280 --> 0:14:04.520 and loudly. Internationally. 0:14:05.200 --> 0:14:09.120 It also shows that these networks can be strong armed. 0:14:09.640 --> 0:14:12.960 You might have leaders from other countries now who look 0:14:13.080 --> 0:14:17.199 to get something out of Mask or Zuckerberg or anyone 0:14:17.200 --> 0:14:23.760 who runs these large platforms. It brings up wider questions of, 0:14:24.200 --> 0:14:26.520 you know, if governments should be regulating these sorts of 0:14:26.520 --> 0:14:30.000 social media platforms that have such outsize influence in our lives. 0:14:30.000 --> 0:14:33.000 I mean, we've just seen this week that Elon Musk's 0:14:33.040 --> 0:14:36.800 sudden interests in a sort of a fairly dormant British 0:14:36.840 --> 0:14:40.640 political issue that had been dealt with by an independent inquiry, 0:14:41.320 --> 0:14:44.160 that he could suddenly change the course of British politics 0:14:44.200 --> 0:14:48.440 just by tweeting obsessively about one issue. 0:14:50.400 --> 0:14:52.600 Elle, thank you so much for your time. 0:14:53.240 --> 0:15:04.520 Yeah, no worries. 0:15:11.560 --> 0:15:14.600 Also in the news today, the Prime Minister Anthony Alberizi 0:15:14.720 --> 0:15:18.040 has pledged three billion dollars to upgrade the NBN if 0:15:18.040 --> 0:15:21.160 his government is re elected. The government says fiber to 0:15:21.200 --> 0:15:24.440 the node connections would be upgraded, with higher internet speeds 0:15:24.440 --> 0:15:26.680 to be delivered to around six hundred and twenty two 0:15:26.760 --> 0:15:32.360 thousand additional premises by twenty thirty and the mass resignation 0:15:32.440 --> 0:15:35.720 of hundreds of psychiatrists from New South Wales public hospitals 0:15:35.880 --> 0:15:39.560 will have devastating consequences. According to the federal health Minister 0:15:39.680 --> 0:15:42.800 Mark Butler. A pay dispute and concerns over the state 0:15:42.840 --> 0:15:45.320 of the mental healthcare system has prompted more than two 0:15:45.400 --> 0:15:49.320 hundred psychiatrists to hand in their resignations. The state government 0:15:49.360 --> 0:15:51.760 has offered a pay increase of ten point five percent 0:15:51.760 --> 0:15:55.120 over three years, while the psychiatrists, through their union, are 0:15:55.120 --> 0:15:58.640 pushing for twenty five percent. I'm Ruby Jones. This is 0:15:58.640 --> 0:16:00.400 seven am. Thanks for listening.