Speaker 1: From Schwartz Media.
Speaker 2: I'm Ruby Jones. This is seven am. Elon Musk's new
Speaker 2: obsession began on New Year's Eve, and in the weeks
Speaker 2: that followed he fired off thousands of posts on his
Speaker 2: social media platform X about British politics, decades old sex
Speaker 2: abuse scandal, and a man named Tommy Robinson. Now the
Speaker 2: British government's agenda has stalled as the Prime Minister faces
Speaker 2: questions about the conspiracy theories Musk is pushing. It's a
Speaker 2: stark example of how the world's richest man can influence
Speaker 2: politics in any country, and comes at a time when
Speaker 2: competitors like Mark Zuckerberg are trying to copy Musk's playbook.
Speaker 2: Today contributor to The Saturday Paper el Hardy on how
Speaker 2: Musk and Zuckerberg are reshaping the Internet and democracy. It's Tuesday,
Speaker 2: January fourteen, So elle on ex Elon Musk is posting
Speaker 2: a lot about a man called Tommy Robinson. So to
Speaker 2: begin with, what can you tell me about Tommy Robinson?
Speaker 3: Tommy and Robinson's a pretty unpleasant dude. He's actually in
Speaker 3: prison at the moment for eighteen months on contempt of
Speaker 3: court charge. He came to prominence in Britain in two
Speaker 3: thousand and nine.
Speaker 4: Robinson first became known more than a decade ago by
Speaker 4: leading chaotic rallies with the self styled English Defense Lead.
Speaker 3: Their animating issue was being anti Muslim and anti immigration
Speaker 3: any man in this punt. He had quite a strong
Speaker 3: following in the UK and he was a very prominent figure,
Speaker 3: but his influence did start to wane as he was
Speaker 3: slowly deplatformed from things like face Book and Twitter back
Speaker 3: in the day, until Elon Musk reinstated his ex account
Speaker 3: in November twenty twenty three as part of his commitment
Speaker 3: to freedom of speech in letting people back onto the
Speaker 3: platform that had previously been banned.
Speaker 2: Okay, and so tell me what Elon Musk has been
Speaker 2: posting it about him.
Speaker 3: Musk seems to have become kind of obsessed with Tommy
Speaker 3: Robinson ever since New Year's Eve.
Speaker 5: Now the Labor Party has caused an international ferrari a
Speaker 5: huge backlash at the Charlie Peters from gb News revealed
Speaker 5: it will block a full inquiry into the Oldham rape
Speaker 5: gang scandal.
Speaker 3: O News Eve, a report from the right wing British
Speaker 3: news channel gb News came to Elon Musk's attention about
Speaker 3: some historical allegations of child grooming gangs in the UK.
Speaker 3: It was a really big problem in the two thousands
Speaker 3: of twenty tens and there've been a number of large
Speaker 3: national inquiries into the problem. But gb News sort of
Speaker 3: beat up a story out of nothing, saying that a
Speaker 3: particular small town in the north of England was calling
Speaker 3: for a fresh inquiry into further allegations about child grooming
Speaker 3: gangs and the UK government were going to launch a
Speaker 3: new inquiry even though they just had one in twenty
Speaker 3: twenty two.
Speaker 5: This comes as the ki Stormers attacked over his handling
Speaker 5: of the Oldham grooming gang scandal when he was head
Speaker 5: of the Crown Prosecution Service.
Speaker 3: With later but this really became a story about the
Speaker 3: perception that the Labor government is scared of taking action
Speaker 3: on issues such as pedophilia, on issues to do with
Speaker 3: potential crimes by immigrants in the country. And Elon Musk
Speaker 3: became interested in Tobby Robertson's case as it was connected
Speaker 3: to the grooming gang scandal very loosely in that Robinson
Speaker 3: was someone who was always talking about this in the media.
Speaker 6: There's a total duty of police and operation in this
Speaker 6: app where they get away of what they want, the
Speaker 6: exac community get away of what they want. The police
Speaker 6: do not know how to deal with these problems. I
Speaker 6: went on saying that they use drugs as a weapon
Speaker 6: against our community to get our children into Peter Felix practices,
Speaker 6: which is what was now known as grooming.
Speaker 3: So Elon became interested in Robinson's case and has started
Speaker 3: posting things like free Tommy Robinson now. And he's been
Speaker 3: falsely implying that his imprisonment has something to do with
Speaker 3: exposing the grooming gang's scandal in the UK, which Robinson
Speaker 3: didn't and which his imprisonment has nothing to do with.
Speaker 3: And Elon Musk has sort of worked himself into a frenzy.
Speaker 3: The Financial Times counted as of last Thursday, I believe
Speaker 3: that he had tweeted more than eleven hundred and eighty
Speaker 3: times about British politics in one week.
Speaker 2: So by talking about this grooming scandal and stoking the
Speaker 2: kind of the associated racial tensions that come with it,
Speaker 2: what effect is that having on UK politics and on
Speaker 2: the current Prime Minister?
Speaker 3: Kiirstarma kis Starma was the Director of Public Prosecutions when
Speaker 3: some of these grooming events came to light. In fact,
Speaker 3: he did decline to prosecute one case where he said
Speaker 3: that the victim was essentially an unreliable witness. So a
Speaker 3: lot of Starmer's political opponents are trying to tie him
Speaker 3: to the issue, and Musk has been consistently attacking Prime
Speaker 3: Minister Starma on x At one point he said that
Speaker 3: Sarma was deeply complicit in the mass rapes in exchange
Speaker 3: for votes. And he's also advocated that Starma should go
Speaker 3: to prison, and he even suggested that America should liberate
Speaker 3: the people of Britain from their tyrannical government. You know,
Speaker 3: they're derailing the government agenda. I suppose, he'd say, because.
Speaker 7: Those that are spreading lies and misinformation as far and
Speaker 7: as wide as possible are not interested in victims, interested
Speaker 7: in themselves. Those were cheerleading Tommy Robinson, interested in justice.
Speaker 3: The Labor government last week was trying to push through
Speaker 3: a bill to begin debating pushing through some of the
Speaker 3: recommendations from the most recent inquiry that came down in
Speaker 3: twenty twenty two. The opposition party, the Tories, tried to
Speaker 3: attach an amendment saying that they needed a new child
Speaker 3: abuse inquiry because of the fervor that Musk had stoked
Speaker 3: on X But.
Speaker 1: The Conservative leadership under reform MPs marching to the beat
Speaker 1: of Elon Musk's drum, are plainly weaponizing the pain and
Speaker 1: the trauma of victims for their own political aids.
Speaker 3: And the labor government is now saying, well, hang on,
Speaker 3: this is going to slow down US passing reforms for
Speaker 3: child protection. So it really is derailing the whole process,
Speaker 3: and it's controlling the British political narrative. And once again,
Speaker 3: this is really all come from one guy with a
Speaker 3: social media platform who's sitting in the United States.
Speaker 2: Why do you think it is? If you wouldn't mind
Speaker 2: I suppose spelling out how you see this that Elon
Speaker 2: Musk is talking about this particular scandal. Now, obviously it
Speaker 2: happened a long time ago, so what is he trying
Speaker 2: to do here?
Speaker 3: Well, this really fits in the context of Elon Musk's
Speaker 3: recent political far right turn, I suppose he'd say, And
Speaker 3: he appears to have enjoyed I think the success that
Speaker 3: he found in delving into US politics, into becoming a
Speaker 3: major funder for Donald Trump and to you probably helping
Speaker 3: him get elected, and to providing a voice to that
Speaker 3: side of politics on his ex platform, and we're starting
Speaker 3: to see him get more involved in politics in all
Speaker 3: sorts of different countries around the world, particularly in England
Speaker 3: and in Germany. And he's not just supporting traditional conservative
Speaker 3: or right of center parties. He's supporting the furthest right parties.
Speaker 3: So in the UK he's become particularly interested in Reform UK,
Speaker 3: which is Nigel Farag's new political party. Frage used to
Speaker 3: run the UK Independence Party, now that's Reform. Musk had
Speaker 3: already mooted potentially making a large donation to the Reform Party,
Speaker 3: but since Nigel Farrage came out and said that there
Speaker 3: was no room for Tobby Robertson in his party and
Speaker 3: it's something he stood by for a long time, Elon
Speaker 3: Musk then started tweeting that Nigel Farrag is not up
Speaker 3: to the job of leading the party and suggested a
Speaker 3: possible alternative leader. And given that he's already suggested that
Speaker 3: he would like to make a large donation to the
Speaker 3: party and is really pushing their popularity and aims on
Speaker 3: his platform, this could be quite a seismic intervention in
Speaker 3: British politics.
Speaker 2: After the break the other tech Billie there watching and
Speaker 2: learning from Elon musk Elle. While Elon Musk has been
Speaker 2: doing this stoking this anti immigration sentiment in the UK,
Speaker 2: Mark Zuckerberg has also announced some big changes to the
Speaker 2: way that he's going to be running Meta, So can
Speaker 2: you tell me about what he said?
Speaker 3: So last week Zuckerberg made an announcement that offered up
Speaker 3: a series of reforms to Meta, which is much more
Speaker 3: in line with what Musk has been doing at X.
Speaker 4: Here, everyone, I want to talk about something important today
Speaker 4: because it's time to get back to our roots around
Speaker 4: free expression on Facebook and Instagram.
Speaker 3: So they're getting rid of fact checking, which Meta brought
Speaker 3: in in late twenty sixteen in direct response to allegations
Speaker 3: about Facebook's role of disseminating misinformation that helped Trump get elected.
Speaker 2: Truth.
Speaker 4: But the fact checkers have just been too politically biased,
Speaker 4: have destroyed more trust than they've created, especially in the US.
Speaker 3: They're switching to community notes, which is something that must
Speaker 3: introduce to the X platform, which is essentially crowdsourced fact
Speaker 3: checking of posts to say if they're wrong and why
Speaker 3: they're wrong, and linked to more relevant information. They're also
Speaker 3: not going to be policing comments, particularly about gender and immigration,
Speaker 3: which are two very big right wing issues.
Speaker 4: What started as a movement to be more inclusive has
Speaker 4: increasingly been used to shut down opinions and shut out
Speaker 4: people with different ideas, and it's gone too far. So
Speaker 4: I want to make sure that people can share their
Speaker 4: beliefs and experience.
Speaker 3: They've also appointed Dana White, who runs UFC, who's a
Speaker 3: close personal friend of Trump, and they're moving their moderation
Speaker 3: teams from California to Texas purely for the perception that
Speaker 3: people in California tend to me will liberal and that
Speaker 3: Texas is becoming sort of a new home of big tech.
Speaker 2: Okay, and it's hard to see all of this as
Speaker 2: anything else than a way for Zuckerberg to attempt to
Speaker 2: get close to Trump, and in his good books, very much.
Speaker 3: So, and I mean Zuckerberg has very clearly seen Musk's
Speaker 3: success in getting close to the incoming administration and obviously
Speaker 3: what it can do for his companies as well. He
Speaker 3: has been embracing issues that Trump and Musk both speak
Speaker 3: a lot about, such as, you know, liberal censorship, importance
Speaker 3: of freedom of speech, you know, going back to prioritizing
Speaker 3: that freedom of speech.
Speaker 8: And he's been doing.
Speaker 3: It in outlets such as Joe Rogan, which is very
Speaker 3: clearly speaking to that audience of Trump World, of Musk World,
Speaker 3: and of the wider tech industry itself.
Speaker 4: These people from the Biden administration would call up our
Speaker 4: team and like scream at them and curse, and it's like,
Speaker 4: these documents are it's all kind of out there.
Speaker 5: Did you record any of those phone calls?
Speaker 6: I don't know.
Speaker 4: I don't think. I don't think we were, but I
Speaker 4: think listen, I mean, there are emails, the emails are published,
Speaker 4: it's all it's all kind of out there, and they're
Speaker 4: like and basically, it just got to this point where
Speaker 4: we were like, no, we're not gonna We're not gonna
Speaker 4: take down things that are true. That's ridiculous.
Speaker 2: And is this about currying favor with Trump or are
Speaker 2: there other reasons that that he would be seeking to
Speaker 2: be in an alignment with the Trump administration going forward.
Speaker 3: Meta has an anti trust case coming up that's going
Speaker 3: to be heard in April. It's a case from a
Speaker 3: photo sharing app that said it was crushed by the
Speaker 3: Meta Empire, and antitrust is a pretty big deal in
Speaker 3: the US. It's the kind of things that you know,
Speaker 3: they can potentially levy monstrous finds, but they can also
Speaker 3: break up companies. So tech companies are obviously pretty wary
Speaker 3: of this and feeling it very acutely. And I mean,
Speaker 3: it's a pretty good time to get into bed with
Speaker 3: Trump if he's coming in and he's believing in having
Speaker 3: a less powerful state. So in general, the tech industry
Speaker 3: has been very behind the incoming Trump administration and it
Speaker 3: seems like they're going to be pretty big supporters of
Speaker 3: him throughout.
Speaker 2: So, el we have these two men, Mark Zuckerberg and
Speaker 2: Elon Musk dramatically reshaping not only the Internet but politics
Speaker 2: as well. So what do you think the impact of
Speaker 2: this is going to be on how we experience both
Speaker 2: these platforms, but also I suppose how we experience democracy
Speaker 2: in the US and UK.
Speaker 3: Certainly, I mean it shows that American politics is for sale.
Speaker 3: This isn't a particularly new idea, but the fact is
Speaker 3: that you can buy a tremendous amount of power and
Speaker 3: influence due to the way that the United States political
Speaker 3: system operates, and that people are willing to do so and.
Speaker 8: Not covert that. They're very happy to do it proudly
Speaker 8: and loudly. Internationally.
Speaker 3: It also shows that these networks can be strong armed.
Speaker 3: You might have leaders from other countries now who look
Speaker 3: to get something out of Mask or Zuckerberg or anyone
Speaker 3: who runs these large platforms. It brings up wider questions of,
Speaker 3: you know, if governments should be regulating these sorts of
Speaker 3: social media platforms that have such outsize influence in our lives.
Speaker 3: I mean, we've just seen this week that Elon Musk's
Speaker 3: sudden interests in a sort of a fairly dormant British
Speaker 3: political issue that had been dealt with by an independent inquiry,
Speaker 3: that he could suddenly change the course of British politics
Speaker 3: just by tweeting obsessively about one issue.
Speaker 2: Elle, thank you so much for your time.
Speaker 8: Yeah, no worries.
Speaker 2: Also in the news today, the Prime Minister Anthony Alberizi
Speaker 2: has pledged three billion dollars to upgrade the NBN if
Speaker 2: his government is re elected. The government says fiber to
Speaker 2: the node connections would be upgraded, with higher internet speeds
Speaker 2: to be delivered to around six hundred and twenty two
Speaker 2: thousand additional premises by twenty thirty and the mass resignation
Speaker 2: of hundreds of psychiatrists from New South Wales public hospitals
Speaker 2: will have devastating consequences. According to the federal health Minister
Speaker 2: Mark Butler. A pay dispute and concerns over the state
Speaker 2: of the mental healthcare system has prompted more than two
Speaker 2: hundred psychiatrists to hand in their resignations. The state government
Speaker 2: has offered a pay increase of ten point five percent
Speaker 2: over three years, while the psychiatrists, through their union, are
Speaker 2: pushing for twenty five percent. I'm Ruby Jones. This is
Speaker 2: seven am. Thanks for listening.