Elon Musk took a rare backward step in his feud with the British government by deleting one of his own posts based on a fake news story about sending prisoners to emergency camps on the Falkland Islands.
The Tesla owner posted a two-word caption to his 193 million followers: “Detainment Camps.”
He deleted the post from his X social media platform, formerly known as Twitter, after 35 minutes, presumably after realizing he had been pranked. It had reportedly been viewed nearly 2 million times.
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The fake story was reportedly posted by the co-leader of a far-right political group called Britain First and was mocked up to resemble the U.K.’s Daily Telegraph. The headline read: “Keir Starmer considering building ’emergency detainment camps’ on the Falkland Islands.”
Underneath, was the strapline: “The camps would be used to detain prisoners from the ongoing riots as the British prison system is already at capacity.”
Alastair Campbell, a former Downing Street spokesperson for Tony Blair and the Labour Party and now a broadcaster and podcaster, responded to the deleted post on X with: “Well thank heavens for that. This is what you get when you clock on @elonmusk reposting of fake news by Britain First an actual avowedly fascist bunch of thugs. Maybe just this once a grown up took his aside and said ffs Elon can you stop behaving like a three year old? Really looking forward to his interview with Trump. Two own goals together.”
The deleted post did little to slow down Musk’s digs at Britain’s new Labour government for its handling of the far-right riots that have plagued cities across the country. He posted: “The Woke Stasi” with a story saying the U.K. authorities will charge people who retweet material “inciting hatred.”
Another post from Sky News about the same story was highlighted by Musk and included a caption that could be been seen as a reference to the fake post he deleted earlier. “This is actually happening,” he wrote.
The billionaire Tesla owner has been feuding with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer all week, at one point claiming that “civil war is inevitable” following the riots fueled by fake news stirred up by the far right in the wake of the fatal stabbings of three girls in Southport in the north of England.
The Telegraph later released a statement on X that said: “The Telegraph is aware of an image circulating on X which purports to be a Telegraph article about ‘emergency detainment camps’. No such article has ever been published by the Telegraph.”
