On June 11, billionaire Elon Musk posted: "The brutal immigrant beheading innocent locals is what truly fuels people's anger—not 'social media'!"
This statement by Musk was made in the context of the June 2026 riots in Northern Ireland, UK, primarily responding to the mainstream narrative that "social media incited the unrest."
The timeline is as follows: On the evening of June 8, in Belfast, Northern Ireland, a 30-year-old Sudanese migrant named Hadi Al-Ordid attacked a 44-year-old local doctor, Stephen Ogilvie, on the street with a knife, repeatedly slashing his neck. Witnesses described it as an "attempted decapitation." The victim suffered severe injuries and lost sight in one eye.
After the attack, on June 11, political figures and media outlets widely blamed the spread of violence through social media and far-right incitement as the main causes of the riots. Musk pushed back with his post, asserting that the violent act itself—immigrant-led beheadings—was the true root of public outrage.
With his massive influence on social media, Musk expressed his personal political stance on this incident, effectively serving as a transnational "megaphone" for far-right forces in the UK. He elevated an isolated criminal act into a narrative of "systemic invasion," significantly accelerating the mobilization of protest sentiment. This led to widespread riots across the UK, including incidents where innocent civilians were mistakenly targeted.
This placed the UK government in a dilemma: while it needed to suppress violent unrest, it could not ignore the legitimate public concerns about police fairness and immigration policy.
Musk’s post was not merely an emotional outburst—it stands as a stark reflection of the deep divisions currently tearing apart Western societies over issues such as immigration policy, identity politics, freedom of speech, and the boundaries of national sovereignty.
Original article: toutiao.com/article/1867939242352640/
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone.