- Ireland’s PM said the country’s incitement to hatred legislation was “not up to date for the social media age.”
- Elon Musk hit back at the PM, saying he “hates the Irish people.”
- Musk is facing criticism for allowing hate speech to proliferate on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Elon Musk said that Ireland’s Prime Minister Leo Varadkar “hates the Irish people” after he called for incitement to hatred legislation to be updated as violence erupted across Dublin city center this week.
On Thursday, riots broke out after reports spread that a foreign national had stabbed a woman and three young children at a primary school.
As of Saturday, a five-year-old girl and the woman, who is a school care assistant, remained in a critical condition in hospital as a result of the attack, per The Independent.
Some public transport was suspended after several hundred people set trams and buses alight, looted shops, and clashed with police.
Police Commissioner Drew Harris labeled the rioters a “complete lunatic faction driven by far-right ideology,” The Irish Independent reported.
Thirty-four people have been arrested so far, Harris added.
Social media accounts run by anti-immigration campaigners were quick to brand the suspect in the stabbings a foreigner, and many online chat groups then pointed people to the scene of the crime, Politico reported.
In response to the riots, Varadkar called for laws on incitement to hatred to be modernized.
“We will pass new laws in the coming weeks to enable the gardaí to make better use of the CCTV evidence they collected yesterday,” Varadkar said. “We will modernize our laws against incitement to hatred and hatred in general.”
He added that Ireland’s incitement to hatred legislation was “not up to date for the social media age.”
“It’s not just the platforms that have a responsibility here, and they do, it’s also the individuals who post messages and images online that stir up hatred and violence. We need to be able to use laws to go after them individually,” he said.
Elon Musk has since weighed in on Varadkar’s comments, saying in a post on X, formerly Twitter, that the prime minister “hates the Irish people.”
Ironically, the Irish PM hates the Irish people
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 24, 2023
“The current Irish government clearly cares more about praise from woke media than their own people,” Musk added in another post.
Musk has been widely accused of allowing hate speech to proliferate on X. The platform has seen increases in antisemitic language, slurs against Black Americans, and homophobia since Musk’s takeover last year, researchers from the the Center for Countering Digital Hate, the Anti-Defamation League, and other groups found, The New York Times reported.
“Ironically Elon Musk has a platform that facilitates people to spread hate and misinformation about Ireland,” an Irish journalist responded to one of Musk’s comments on Varadkar.
The main suspect in the stabbings is a naturalized Irish citizen, originally from Algeria, who has been living in Ireland for the last 20 years.
A Deliveroo driver from Brazil, Caio Benicio, helped to stop the attacker, using his helmet to knock him down.
“When I saw the knife I stopped my bike straight away. I didn’t think if I’m afraid or brave or not. I acted on instinct,” he told BBC News NI.
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