Elon Musk has lashed out at the UK after reports he had been snubbed by a government investment summit.
The tech billionaire hasn’t been invited to the summit next month after his posts on his X platform regarding the violent riots in the UK last month, according to a BBC report.
In response, he made the inaccurate claim that the government was releasing convicted paedophiles to allow for the imprisonment of people over social media posts.
“I don’t think anyone should go to the UK when they’re releasing convicted paedophiles in order to imprison people for social media posts,” Mr Musk said on X, in response to a post on the report.
His comments appear to be a reference to the government’s early release scheme, which saw more than 1,700 prisoners released early this month.
It was an effort by the prime minister to reduce overcrowding in prisons.
Those serving sentences for sex offences were not included in the scheme.
During the riots that shook the UK in August, Mr Musk, who has nearly 200 million followers on X, sent a series of posts on X, including one saying civil war was “inevitable”.
He was quickly criticised by the government and others. Sir Keir Starmer’s team said at the time there was “no justification” for such comments.
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More than 1,000 arrests have been made in relation to the riots, and some people have been jailed for stirring up racial hatred on social media.
The investment summit next month is designed to attract investors to the UK economy and will see leaders from global tech and financial groups attend.
Mr Musk was last publicly seen in London in November 2023, when he attended the AI Safety Summit before being interviewed by then-Conservative Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.
The Department for Business and Trade and the Treasury did not respond to requests for comment on either the BBC report or Musk’s response.