<
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/jun/04/keir-starmer-elon-musk-division-henry-nowak>
"Elon Musk is “interfering in our politics” and attempting to create division,
Keir Starmer has said, in a significant toughening of government language about
the X owner.
The prime minister’s comments come after weeks of posts by Musk on his social
media platform about the murder of Henry Nowak, many of which have used
far-right themes and talking points.
Starmer met Nowak’s family at Downing Street on Thursday to discuss a response
to the actions of Hampshire police, who arrested the 18-year-old student as he
lay dying from stab wounds after a false accusation of racist abuse by the
killer.
He said after the meeting that he had been “profoundly humbled” and promised to
take “whatever action is required to right the wrongs in this case”.
Speaking in West Yorkshire earlier in the day, where he met mayors from English
regions, Starmer said Britain needed to “assert who we are” as “reasonable,
tolerant people”.
He also praised the Labour MP Jess Asato, who is taking legal action against
Musk’s xAI company after saying its Grok tool had helped a user produce fake
sexualised pictures of her, part of a wave of images that flooded X earlier
this year.
In a claim submitted to the high court in London, Asato said xAI – now a
subsidiary of SpaceX, which also owns X – had breached laws connected to data
protection and the misuse of private information. Asato has said that as well
as creating images of her in a bikini, Grok produced a video showing her “being
chloroformed and prepared for a sexual assault”.
“Jess Asato is absolutely right in the action she is taking. Disgusting images
were created, in her particular case by Grok,” said Starmer, who has warned
Musk’s company it would face drastic regulatory action if it did not stop the
flow of sexualised images, some of which featured children.
Starmer said: “I am really pleased that we took Grok on a few months ago,
because that is the fight we should be in, taking on some of these platforms
providers [and] some of these disgusting images, really disgusting. We won
that.
“But Jess is right, she is a parliamentarian. I am 100% behind the action that
she has taken. We also need to assert who we are as a country, because Musk
again has been interfering in our politics in the last few days, trying to whip
up division. That is not who we are in Britain.
“In Britain we are reasonable, tolerant people. When we have a terrible case
like Henry’s case, Henry Nowak, we react calmly, as his family has done. When
it comes to disgusting images on Grok, we take Grok on and fight, because
that’s who we are as a country.”"
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
