Elon Musk asks 'UK or USSR?' after sharing 'video of man arrested for Facebook comment'

Elon Musk lashed out again on X asking "Is this Britain or the Soviet Union?" and sharing a video purporting to show a man getting arrested for making "offensive" Facebook comments.

Sharing the video, Musk wrote: "Arrested for making comments on Facebook! Is this Britain or the Soviet Union?"

To check if the law that was being used to arrest the man was being used correctly he asked an X function called Community Notes, which is X's own fact-checking resource.

The Express was unable to verify the authenticity of the video and it is unknown when it was taken.

In the video, a female officer says: "The time is twenty-to-three, 14.40. I'm arresting you for improper use of the electronic communications network... Section 127 of the Communications Act, ok?"

The man responds: "So I'm actually being arrested? ... Oh a Facebook crime is it?"

Section 127 of the Communications Act 2003 makes it an offence to send a message that is grossly offensive or of an indecent, obscene or menacing character over a public electronic communications network.

The news came as Keir Starmer launched into a war of words with the tech billionaire after the X and Tesla owner weighed in on the riots seen in Britain over the past week.

Yesterday Mr Musk responded to a video of fireworks being launched by far-right protestors, captioned by the original poster as “total madness”.

Responding to an account that described the riots as “the effects of mass migration and open borders”, Mr Musk claimed: “Civil war is inevitable.”

He then responded to an offensive cartoon on so-called "two-tier policing" saying: "It does seem one-sided".

The phrase "two-tier policing" is used by people who claim that some protests are treated more harshly by officers than others.

Amid widespread criticism of what many users of his platform said was a highly irresponsible comment, UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has now also condemned Mr Musk’s intervention.

Speaking to journalists yesterday lunchtime, Sir Keir’s official spokesman said there is “no justification” for such comments.

At the same time, his technology minister met with social media representatives from major companies, including X, to urge them to clamp down on online hate.

A few hours later, Musk hit out at Keir Starmer again by directly responding to a video posted by the PM emphasising that attacks on Muslims and mosques would not be tolerated.

Speaking to his 193 million followers, Musk responded: "Shouldn't you be concerned about attacks on *all* communities?"