UK Emphasizes Censorship Online After Immigration Riots

Your weekly News Memo - a more human way to engage with the news.

In this week’s memo:

• UK Emphasizes Censorship Online After Immigration Riots

• Donald Trump and Elon Musk Hold Two-Hour Conversation

• 9/11 Terrorist Plea Deal in Limbo

• GetSmart:🐋 Male Humpback Whales Sing Choruses of Songs Together

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Newsbites

• Two NASA astronauts are currently stuck at an international space station after the Boeing Starliner had technical issues before docking at the destination. The Space Agency is deliberating on a return plan and won’t make a decision until the end of August. Butch Wilmar and Suni Williams left on June 5 for an estimated 8-day mission. Five of the spacecraft’s thrusters, which help it maneuver, cut out as it approached the station. Boeing has repeatedly said it has confidence the Starliner can return safely after a technical diagnosis, but discussions inside NASA are questioning whether it would be safer to wait for a SpaceX aircraft (mission scheduled for early 2025) to return them home. NASA says the two are “doing great.”
  
  More: Boeing and SpaceX were each provided billion dollar contracts to build an aircraft to carry astronauts to space. SpaceX has completed nine successful missions. This was Boeing's first attempt at completing the mission.

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• Monkeypox: The World Health Organization declared monkeypox a public health emergency this week. The primarily sexually-transmitted infection is spreading quickly in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), as well as other countries in central and east Africa. The first case in Sweden was also confirmed this week. A widespread outbreak of monkeypox also occurred in 2022, although the virus strain in the current outbreak is deadlier. Thus far in 2024, about 14,000 people in the DRC have contracted the virus with more than 450 deaths.

  More: Symptoms include rash and blisters across the body, along with swollen lymph nodes.

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• Surprise Ukrainian offensive into Russia: Ukrainian troops launched an offensive into Russia, advancing 20 miles in from the border and planted their flag in the city of Sudzha. It’s the first military invasion of Russian territory since World War II. Russian forces have suffered large losses of men, including 3 military helicopters that were shot down. Putin responded calling Ukraine’s advance as “yet another large-scale provocation.” The U.S. and other Western allies had to relax their policy which held that Western-supplied weapons cannot be used on Russian soil. Time will tell how aggressively Russia responds to the invasion.

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• Kamala v. Trump Update: New polls show the presidential race in a dead heat with Harris leading by a small margin in most surveys. This week, Donald Trump held an economic focused event - during the address Trump held up a pack of Tic Tacs beside a tiny pack of Tic Tacs to visualize inflation, which he says is “destroying our country.” Vice-President Kamala Harris announced her plan to lower prescription drug costs with President Biden alongside her for the first time at one of her rallies.

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• Columbia University President Resigns: Minouche Shafik, the president of Columbia University, resigned this week (letter). Shafik’s departure comes four months after she appeared before Congress and was scrutinized for how the university responded to the pro-Palestine demonstrations. In the past year, the presidents of Harvard (Claudine Gay) and the University of Pennsylvania (Liz Magill) have also resigned after facing pressure from university stakeholders in large part over their handling of anti-semitic instances on campuses.

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Main Stories

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UK Emphasizes Censorship Online After Immigration Riots

“We do have dedicated police officers who are scouring social media. Their job is to look for this material, and then follow up with identification, arrests, and so forth.” - Stephen Parkinson, Public Prosecutor of Whales and England

Context
Three small girls were murdered by a 17-year-old boy at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class on July 29 in Southport, England. The suspect entered the dance class and began a stabbing rampage that not only killed the three girls, but seriously wounded eight other children and two adults.

Soon after, crowds gathered outside a mosque near the crime scene and began protesting and throwing bottles at police officers. Government officials did not disclose the name of the suspect because he was a minor under trial. Tensions continued as rumors swirled online that the attacker was Muslim and named Ali Al Shakati, which was false. The real name, Axel Rudakubana, was finally released by a judge on August 1.

Hundreds of protests and riots began across 26 cities in England and lasted for about two weeks. Many involved looting, property destruction, and violent encounters with the police (video). More than 1000 people have been arrested and more than 550 have been charged with serious crimes.

What were the riots about?
The majority of the media blamed online “misinformation” and “far-right” racism for the riots. However, the vastness of the riots (26 cities across England) likely suggest a more nuanced issue regarding immigration and the dissatisfaction of many Brits with their government and the changing cultural demographic.

Between 2018 - 2022, 75% of the country’s population growth was attributable to migration. India, Nigeria, China, Pakistan, and Ukraine were the top 5 countries of origins for immigrants to the UK in 2023.

UK censors social media content
The government began arresting people who posted content on X and other platforms that “incited violence” or were deemed “misinformation.” The Crown Prosecution Service (a government run sector) posted on X: 

“Think before you post!  Content that incites violence or hatred isn't just harmful - it can be illegal. The CPS takes online violence seriously and will prosecute when the legal test is met. Remind those close to you to share responsibly or face the consequences.”

In addition, Stephen Parkinson, the Public Prosecutor of Whales and England, said that people who retweet content that might escalate “hatred” could be charged with crimes. (video) Here is the full quote:

• “The offence of Incitement To Racial Hatred involves publishing or distributing material which is insulting or abusive, which is intended to or likely to start racial hatred, so if you retweet that, then you’re republishing that, and then potentially you’re committing that offence.”
  

• “We do have dedicated police officers who are scouring social media.”
  

• “Their job is to look for this material and then follow up with identification, arrest, and so forth. So it’s a really, really serious issue.”
  

• “People might think they’re not doing anything harmful, but they are, and the consequences will be visited upon them.”

Another stabbing of an 11-year-old girl
Just this week, Ioan Pintaru, a 32-year-old Romanian citizen was arrested after stabbing an 11-year-old girl in London’s Leicester Square. The young girl is currently undergoing plastic surgery and is recovering from life threatening injuries. Pintaru was homeless and had moved to Britain six years ago for work.

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Donald Trump and Elon Musk Hold Two-Hour Conversation

In preparation for the election, Elon Musk and Donald Trump had a two-hour live conversation on 𝕏 Spaces on Monday. The start of the livestream was delayed by over 30 minutes due to what Musk said was a “massive distributed denial of service [DDOS] attack” against 𝕏’s servers. Thus far, 𝕏  has not offered more details to confirm it was a cyberattack. 

At the outset, Musk said the intention of the event was “to just get a feel for what Donald Trump is like in a conversation…this is aimed at open minded, independent voters that are trying to make up their mind.”

Trump and Musk discussed a number of issues, including:

• Assassination Attempt: While Trump acknowledged that there were security failures at the Butler rally, he also praised the counter sniper team and the response of the Secret Service team on stage, saying, “They moved so fast and let me tell you, that took tremendous courage.” Trump plans to return to Butler for another rally in October.

• International Relations: Trump praised his relationships with foreign leaders, including Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un, and said if he was in office he would have prevented Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Musk said he believes it is important that the president of the U.S. is an intimidating figure to foreign leaders for ensuring global security.

• Inflation discussion: (time stamp)

• Immigration discussion: (time stamp)

Musk pitches himself for position in Trump’s office
Elon pitched Trump on forming a Government Efficiency Commission to examine how the government is spending money. Musk said, 

“I think it would be great to have a government efficiency commission that ensures that the taxpayer’s hard-earned money is spent in a good way. And I'd be happy to help out on such a commission.”

EU issues warning before interview about violating online speech laws
Before the event, EU commissioner Thierry Breton sent a letter to Musk warning him to ensure the conversation with Trump complies with the EU’s new Digital Services Act (DSA) that polices online content it deems to be disinformation, hateful, and illegal. 

Below is an excerpt from the letter:

Viewership
About 1.5M people tuned into the event while it was live. The Trump campaign published figures assembled by 𝕏 that said as of Tuesday (the day after the event):

• 25M users had listened to the full interview.

• The total number of impressions reached 2.9 billion.

Musk extends offer to Kamala Harris
After the conversation with Trump, Musk tweeted “Happy to host Kamala on an 𝕏 Spaces too.

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9/11 Terrorist Plea Deal in Limbo