Elon Musk is one of the most dangerous men on the planet, says Humza Yousaf

Elon Musk is one of the most dangerous men on the planet, former first minister Humza Yousaf has said.

Mr Yousaf accused the owner of X, formerly Twitter, of using his vast wealth “for some of the most wicked evil I’ve seen”.

Mr Musk has posted a number of images and memes stoking division around the anti-immigration protests and disorder in Britain, as well as recently reposting an image of a fake news headline about the UK’s response to riots.

Mr Yousaf, who was appearing at Iain Dale’s All Talk show at the Edinburgh Fringe, said the tech billionaire had “amplified” white supremacists and “far-right neo Nazi conspiracy theories”.

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He said Mr Musk was, in his view, “one of the most dangerous men on the planet”, adding: “He is not accountable to anybody. He has vast wealth at his fingertips, and he uses it for some of the most wicked evil I’ve seen.

“He is not an idiot. Elon Musk is a very smart, very tech savvy. He could do a simple Google search of any of the disinformation he has seen in the last week and see it’s untrue, but instead he seeks to amplify it and perpetuate it.

“So he’s amplified these white supremacists, these far-right neo Nazi conspiracy theories and has almost called for civil war in Europe.

“He does it with a question mark, with emojis, and tries to make it as though it’s an innocent question. He is using his wealth to amplify the far-right.”

Mr Musk recently shared an image posted by Britain First co-leader Ashlea Simon, which purported to show a headline from the Daily Telegraph website, claiming the Government was considering creating temporary detainment camps on the Falkland Islands for those arrested during the riots. The Telegraph quickly debunked the image.

Mr Musk and Ms Simon have since both deleted their posts, but not before Mr Musk’s post was seen by hundreds of thousands of his followers – of which he has 193 million – and other users.

Mr Yousaf said: “Elon Musk, again, is not an idiot. He’s a smart individual who can easily use a search engine to see whether that headline is true. He didn’t. He chose to amplify that to his 190 million followers. He’s as I say, I think one of the most dangerous men on the planet particularly because he’s so unaccountable.”

Elsewhere, the former SNP leader spoke candidly about his difficult time as first minister, and his disastrous decision to end the power-sharing deal between the SNP and the Greens, which led to his downfall.

He told Matthew Stadlen, who was standing in for Mr Dale due to illness: "The miscalculation I made, is you tend to make your mistakes when you think like a politician in a political bubble and you forget the human dimension.

"And what I did, in my miscalculation was to go, well, the Greens rely so heavily on the SNP for the list vote, if they vote against the SNP Government, and the SNP first minister, it will be political suicide.

"Of course, the human dimension, which is the dimension which you must always think about, is well, wait a minute, you're bringing in two of your ministers into Bute House and sacking them very publicly... so duh, they’re are going to react very badly to that."

He added: “Look, I frankly f**ked up."

Mr Yousaf also told the event, which was relatively poorly attended, that the pressures of the job led to “heated arguments” with his wife, Nadia El-Nakla, about not spending enough time with his children. He said she told him: “You’re away for three days and then you’re coming back and you want to go away for a fourth night or a fifth night? That’s not acceptable. Get your backside back home and make sure you see the kids.”

Mr Musk has been heavily criticised in recent days for a number of posts about the disorder in the wake of the Southport stabbings and was called “deeply irresponsible” by Justice Secretary Heidi Alexander for posting that “civil war is inevitable” in the UK.

Both X and Mr Musk have come under increased scrutiny since the businessman took over the site in late 2022, with the billionaire himself engaging with misleading content and accounts known for spreading misinformation on a number of occasions.

He recently reposted a misleading video of US vice president Kamala Harris that had been manipulated by AI, and has previously engaged with accounts known to have spread misinformation on a number of topics, including Covid-19 and vaccine safety.

His approach to running the platform has been heavily criticised after he substantially cut staff numbers and changed the site’s verification and content moderation systems, saying he wanted to allow “absolute free speech”.

Under Mr Musk’s leadership, the company has also restored the accounts of many figures previously banned for breaking site rules around hate speech, including some from the UK such as Tommy Robinson – real name Stephen Yaxley-Lennon – and Katie Hopkins.

Since then, many users claim to have seen an increase in misinformation and hateful content, as well as pornography and spam posts and accounts, despite Mr Musk claiming he would “defeat the bots” after taking over the company.

Mr Musk’s actions have led to calls for harsher punishments to be levelled at social media platforms and their managers for allowing harmful content to spread.

The UK’s Online Safety Act, which passed into law last year but is yet to be enacted fully, could see the biggest platforms facing billions of pounds in fines if they do not comply with the new rules, with criminal liability for named managers a possibility in some instances, as is the potential for sites to have their access limited in the most severe cases.