Elon Musk’s X not facing action from UK government over posts inciting violence in Belfast

Any official reprimand will come from regulator Ofcom, but not for at least two months

Elon Musk’s X will face no action to remove a mass of posts inciting violence in Northern Ireland for at least two months, despite widespread condemnation of the platform and its billionaire owner.

Concern over the role social media played in spreading disturbing images and fuelling anger continued to grow on Wednesday as police and community leaders urged calm.

They feared a repeat of the violence that erupted on Tuesday evening, when crowds, including masked men, burned vehicles and houses and blocked roads in and around Belfast.

Locals from ethnic minorities were targeted in what one Northern Ireland MP called “a race-based pogrom” .

Keir Starmer vowed on Wednesday to crack down on anyone fuelling such divisions and said there was no justification for the scenes of violence and disorder.

Ministers plan to amend the Online Safety Act to require social media firms to act more quickly to remove inflammatory content during riots or other crises, but this will not take effect until mid-July at the earliest.

In the meantime, the government will leave any official reprimand of X to Ofcom. The media regulator is awaiting a first quarterly report on compliance from the platform, but this is not due for at least two months.