Elon Musk and Keir Starmer in online battle as riots grip UK

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer has been ensnared in a war of words with Tesla CEO Elon Musk over riots that have gripped the nation for the past week.

As pockets of far-right violence continue to erupt around the UK following a knife attack in Southport that killed three girls, Musk has blasted Starmer in a series of posts on X for his handling of the crisis.

Musk’s social media platform has played a central role in the saga up until now: it was first used as a tool to whip up frenzy and misinformation about the Southport attack and has since become a channel for the tech billionaire to criticise the prime minister and give an even bigger platform to the rhetoric that has led to the subsequent violence.

Here's a look at the posts on X that got us here.

Three girls were killed in a mass stabbing at a dance studio in the northwestern English town of Southport on 29 July.

The news instantly triggered speculation online over the identity of the alleged murderer, with many incorrectly claiming he was a Muslim immigrant.

It was soon announced that Welsh-born Axel Muganwa Rudakubana, a British citizen whose parents were originally from Rwanda, had been charged with murder in connection with the attack. Still, the Islamophobic narrative had already taken hold.

The name "Ali al-Shakati" was attributed to the alleged attacker, with no official source given to the name. Fact-checkers have since traced it to a dubious Russian-linked fake news outlet masquerading as a legitimate American news site.

The claim was picked up by far-right agitators online, including anti-Islam activist Tommy Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon.

Controversial influencer Andrew Tate incorrectly said on X that an "undocumented migrant" who "arrived on