Elon Musk isn’t an extremist threat

At conferences and roundtables on counter extremism in recent months, it has been impossible to escape the terms ‘mis’ and ‘disinformation’. For among experts, practitioners, academics, civil servants and police officers, it is the default explanation for understanding not only extremism in Britain, but the wider mood of popular discontent. 

Over the weekend, this view was lent further credence in the pages of the Observer by two counter-extremism heavyweights, former counter-extremism commissioner Dame Sara Khan and the former head of counter-terrorism police, Neil Basu. Together, they warn that the government’s new counter-extremism plans are not enough ‘to address a toxic pool of hatred, conspiracy theories and “dangerous rhetoric” from high-profile figures including Elon Musk.’ 

Parts of Khan and Basu’s diagnosis are largely – and depressingly – correct. We live in an extremely polarised and fragile moment, where extremist groups thrive and simmering tensions look likely to boil over at any moment.