Swinney considering use of X over 'reprehensible' Musk remarks

First Minister John Swinney previously criticised Elon Musk after he became embroiled in a racism row with Humza Yousaf

First Minister John Swinney has said he will review his use of the social media platform X after accusing its owner Elon Musk of "reprehensible" behaviour.

Musk addressed the Unite the Kingdom rally in London, which was organised by far-right activist Tommy Robinson, via videolink at the weekend.

In a surprise appearance, the tech billionaire spoke about "massive uncontrolled migration" and called for a "change of government" in the UK.

Swinney told BBC Radio's Good Morning Scotland programme that Musk was a "malign influence" on UK politics.

The first minister said that he was thinking about leaving the platform, but added that he didn't want to "leave the field barren" to those who hope to spread a different message.

Elon Musk is one of the world's richest men

On Saturday 26 officers were injured while policing the protest, which saw more than 150,000 people march through central London.

About 5,000 people joined a nearby counter-protest organised by Stand Up To Racism.

"Something's got to be done," Musk said, as he was interviewed by Robinson.

"There's got to be a dissolution of Parliament and a new vote held."

Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood described the language used by Musk when addressing the rally as "abhorrent".

Asked about Musk's remarks, Swinney told Good Morning Scotland: "He is a malign influence.

"I think he is, in a whole series of baseless ways, stirring up tension and animosity in our society and I think it is reprehensible what he is doing."

Asked if he was considering the Scottish government's use of X and his own personal use of the platform, the first minister said: "I have thought about these issues before and in the light of the different events that have taken their course - and particularly the intervention of Elon Musk - I am thinking about it again.

"We have obviously got to look at ways of communicating our message.

"I don't want to just leave the field barren for people like Elon Musk to dominate the communication with individuals across the country."

Swinney has more than 116,500 followers on X and the official Scottish government account has over 437,000.

But Musk has a vast reach on his platform - which he took over in 2022 for $44bn (£38.1bn) - with 226.1m followers.

Yesterday morning, Ed Davey opened his X app and posted a SpongeBob SquarePants meme in a bid to troll the platform's billionaire owner.

That this was the act of the leader of the Liberal Democrats - currently the third force in the Commons, with a history echoing back to Gladstone and Lloyd George - and not a 12-year-old on a football message board underlines how 'very online' much of our political discourse has become.

The days of the internet as an exciting new way of connecting with voters feel quite distant, but still almost every politician feels the need to maintain some kind of online presence - to craft their public image and to spread their messages.

This is true even in the case of the most notable counterpoint of recent months, the Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse by-election.

Labour beat the odds with a candidate who barely appeared on television, never mind TikTok, but who determinedly set out to knock on thousands of doors.

It was heralded as a victory for old-school shoe-leather campaigning.

However Facebook's ad library also shows that Davy Russell ran 37 different targeted adverts.

In the 2021 Scottish Parliament campaign, Electoral Commission records suggest parties spent £578,000 on advertising with Facebook.

So it wouldn't be a shock if John Swinney did stop posting on his own X account.

His image of a serious pragmatist, the grown-up in the room, isn't perfectly suited to the snarky cynicism of social media in 2025.

But as next year's election comes nearer and nearer, you can bet his party and government will still be pumping his image out across multiple channels.

It is not the first time that Musk, who was a senior adviser to US President Donald Trump until their spectacular fall out, has aired his views on UK politics.

In a series of X posts at the start of the year, he accused Sir Keir Starmer of failing to prosecute gangs that systematically groomed and raped young girls, and called for safeguarding minister Jess Phillips to be jailed.

Though Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch called for a full national public inquiry into what she called the UK's "rape gangs scandal", her party also criticised Musk for "sharing things that are factually inaccurate".

Last year former first minister Humza Yousaf accused the X owner of trying to inflame racial tensions after he posted about the 2004 murder of Glasgow schoolboy Kriss Donald.

Musk previously called the ex-SNP leader a racist "scumbag", claiming he "loathes" white people.

It came after Yousaf had branded the entrepreneur a "dangerous race baiter" and "one of the most dangerous men on the planet".

At the time Swinney described Musk's behaviour as "completely and utterly unacceptable".

After the events over the weekend, Swinney said he thought it needed to be recognised what Musk was "doing to our discourse".

He added: "It is being stirred up by people like Elon Musk and some of the characters that were attacking police officers and attacking members of the public on the streets of London at the weekend."