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Elon Musk Questions Imprisonment of British Far-Right Campaigner — Who Is Tommy Robinson?

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James Morales
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Key Takeaways

  • Elon Musk has questioned Tommy Robinson’s 18-month prison sentence.
  • Robinson, whose legal name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, is the de facto leader of the English Defence League (EDL).
  • The far-right protest group is known for violence and Islamophobia.

While usually stopping short of full-throated approval, Elon Musk has a history of offering coded endorsements to controversial figures on X. 

In the latest example, Musk used his platform to question a British court’s decision to sentence the right-wing provocateur Tommy Robinson to 18 months in prison.

Tommy Robinson 18-Month Sentence

In 2018, a U.K. court ordered Robinson, whose legal name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, not to repeat claims about a schoolboy that it found to be defamatory.

However, in May 2023, Robinson published Silenced, a self-made documentary about the incident, which repeats the allegation that the Syrian refugee Jamal Hijazi attacked a female student. 

As a result of the libelous claim made in Silenced, Robinson was found guilty  of contempt of court and sentenced to 18 months in prison.

The sentence is not his first, however. Robinson previously served nine weeks of a 13-month sentence for illegally filming in court. 

EDL Founder Has a Record of Controversy

In the U.K., Robinson is most well-known as the de facto leader of the English Defense League (EDL), a far-right group known for organizing anti-Islam rallies that often turn violent. 

While Robinson has denied  encouraging violence and publicly rejects racism, the EDL has a record of attacking police and members of the public and is widely viewed as a hate group by mainstream British politics. 

Moreover, although he has publicly distanced himself from the group in recent years, Robinson remains a key figurehead and ideological anchor for the decentralized movement that has superseded the EDL.

His more controversial statements include describing  Islam as a “disease” and claiming that his hometown of Luton had suffered “ethnic cleansing” as a result of immigration. 

The EDL leader’s online content was cited  by police as a “significant factor” in the radicalization of the terrorist Darren Osborne.

In 2017, Osborne drove a van into a crowd of predominantly Muslim pedestrians in London, killing one and injuring 11 more.

How Musk Amplifies Controversial Views

As a self-proclaimed free speech champion, Musk has a history of taking up the cause of right-wing voices like Robinson, who claim they have been silenced or censored by mainstream institutions.

While Robinson’s Twitter (now X) account had previously been banned  for violating the platform’s policies on hateful conduct, it was reinstated  by Musk in 2023.

Since then, Musk has interacted with Robinson’s posts on several occasions, amplifying the EDL leader’s social media presence and ensuring it reaches a much larger audience. 

On the surface, Musk’s support for Robinson is about questioning the court’s decision to send him to prison for repeating claims that may have some justification. (The original libel trial heard evidence from five former pupils at the school at the center of the controversy, all of whom supported Robinson’s account).

But Musk doesn’t select the Tweets he chooses to promote at random. Viewed alongside other posts that promote  Germany’s AfD and his frequent anti-immigrant tirades, his latest comment on X brings his worldview into focus. 

It is highly unlikely that Musk isn’t aware of who the EDL are and what they stand for. His apparent support for Robinson is a blatant dog whistle that makes one thing clear to its members: “I’m with you.”

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James Morales

Although his background is in crypto and FinTech news, these days, James likes to roam across CCN’s editorial breadth, focusing mostly on digital technology. Having always been fascinated by the latest innovations, he uses his platform as a journalist to explore how new technologies work, why they matter and how they might shape our future.
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