Musk's X helps Tommy Robinson rack up 434 million views during UK riots
X amplified Tommy Robinson's disinformation to 434M+ views during the UK riots with virtually no fact-checks.
Executive summary
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The Center for Countering Digital Hate manually logged posts from UK activist Tommy Robinson's X account between July 29 and August 5, 2024, during the period of unrest following the Southport stabbings, recording view counts, topics, and the presence of Community Notes, and comparing them against his account's typical performance.
The analysis found Robinson's daily views rose from an average of about 11.1 million before July 29 to roughly 54.3 million during the riot period, with his posts drawing 434 million views over the week studied and about 1.5 billion views over a 90-day window; only one of 679 posts examined carried a Community Note.
The report concludes that X's verification and algorithmic ranking systems amplified Robinson's reach during a volatile period with minimal fact-checking intervention, and argues this reflects a broader pattern of the platform prioritizing engagement over accuracy during crises.
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