Musk, who is set to serve Donald Trump's new administration as an outside adviser, waded into Spanish affairs on Sunday by commenting "Wow" while reposting an X post from the account Visegrad24 featuring a screenshot of an article on rape convictions in Spain's northeastern region of Catalonia. The article, originally published by La Razon newspaper on Sept. 27 of last year, carried the headline "91% of those convicted for rape in Catalonia are foreigners" and the subheading "Immigrants make up 17% of the region's total population".
Data from Catalan authorities highlighted by La Razon showed that 22 out of the 24 people convicted or on remand on rape charges in Catalonia were non-Spanish citizens. A spokesperson for Catalonia's regional justice department did not immediately reply to a request for comment. Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, whose liberal stance on immigration is harshly criticised by far-right party Vox, has rejected any links between rates of immigration and crime and has said that "foreigners are neither better nor worse than Spaniards" in terms of criminality.
Spanish crime rates have either remained stable or diminished every year since 2011. A Spanish Interior Ministry published in September concluded that "the immigration phenomenon is not having a negative or significant impact on crime rates".
A European Commission spokesperson said on Monday that while Musk was free to express his views on European politics, X must adhere to rules in the EU's Digital Services Act, under which large online platforms have to analyse and mitigate potential risks for electoral processes and civic discourse.
Keir Starmer said that people spreading lies and misinformation online were not interested in supporting those affected and were only interested in themselves. "Those that are spreading lies and misinformation as far and as wide as possible are not interested in victims, they are interested in themselves," Starmer said. Starmer was responding to a question about Elon Musk's recent attacks on his handling of child rape cases although he did not criticise Musk individually.
Musk - a close ally of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump - last week backed calls for a national inquiry into the handling of cases of rape by men of Pakistani heritage of underage girls by the government's prosecution service which Starmer previously ran. A 2014 inquiry found at least 1,400 children were subjected to sexual exploitation in Rotherham, northern England, between 1997 and 2013.
"We've seen this playbook many times, whipping up of intimidation and threats of violence, hoping that the media will amplify it," Starmer said. The prime minister highlighted that his safeguarding minister Jess Phillips had received serious threats. Musk described her in a post on his social media platform X last week as a "rape genocide apologist". "When the poison of the far-right leads to serious threats to Jess Phillips and others then in my book a line has been crossed," Starmer said.
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