Rupert & fiends
Makerfield by-election , Issue 1676 ELON MUSK only became aware of Rupert Lowe's existence in January 2025, but his support for the latter's Restore Britain party in the forthcoming Makerfield by-election, said to be on a knife edge between Labour and Nigel Farage's Reform UK, could prove decisive.

Since pushing him into the limelight, Musk has posted about or reposted Lowe at a rate of around once per week, usually on the subject of the "safety of women and girls". Grok, Musk's AI tool, continues to be used to create non-consensual nudes of women and girls, despite his repeated assurances that he has "fixed" the issue.

Limited appeal
The extent to which Musk's endorsements will boost Lowe (who was expelled from Reform in March last year) and Restore in the polls is dubious, given that the billionaire is unpopular with 59 percent of the UK electorate, according to YouGov polling.

Exactly what affinity Musk – a white South African who has repeatedly spoken in support of the racist "great replacement theory" – might feel with a UK political party whose supporters include, among others, one YouTuber who has spoken of his "hope" for "another Hitler to lead another great uprising", is unclear.

The haters
Meanwhile, six months after opening an inquiry into social media platform X's performance on illegal hate and terror speech, regulator Ofcom has received "public commitments" from Musk's platform that it will improve its efforts.

Specifically, the platform has committed to review and assess" flagged content within 24 hours (extended to 48 hours as a "backstop"). Of course, commitments alone mean little – as evidenced by the fact that Grok can still produce nonconsensual, sexualised imagery on demand, despite months of assurances the issue was being fixed (Eyes passim ad nauseam).

The charity British Future reported 33 cases of illegal hate speech on X in the days following the platform's promises – more than 48 hour later, all were still visible in direct contravention of its "commitments".

It seems likely X will not enforce its policies adequately; the question is what sanctions, if any, Ofcom can meaningfully impose.