Elon Musk blasted the UK’s justice system in an interview claiming that there is a “shocking amount of censorship” in Britain.
The businessman and investor spoke on the Tucker Carlson Show about the early release of prisoners in the UK and people sent to prison over riot-related social media posts.
Speaking to Carlson, he said: “There’s also like a shocking amount of censorship. You may have seen in Britain there.
“I kid you not… how can this be real? They are releasing convicted paedophiles from prison in order to put people in prison for Facebook posts.”
Elon Musk discusses censorship in Britain
Carlson quipped: “But to be fair, those are posts that criticise the government, so they have a good reason.”
Musk responded by saying: “Well actually, the ones that I’ve seen don’t actually criticise the government. They were seen as hate speech.”
Carlson said: “Right. So because they noticed the society getting crappier and crappier with every year and they said so.”
Commenting on the video on X, political commentator Matt Goodwin said: “Much of the world is laughing at Bonkers Britain. Releasing criminals so we can imprison people who wrote offensive things on Facebook.”
In September 2024, over 1,700 prisoners were released early in England and Wales as part of a government scheme to ease overcrowding in prisons.
Eligible prisoners were automatically released after serving only 40 per cent of their fixed-term sentence, rather than the usual 50 per cent.
However, not all victims of crime were made aware of their offenders’ early release dates.
Offenders jailed for violent offences with sentences of at least four years, sex offenders and domestic abusers were not eligible for early release.
But it did include individuals on the sex offenders register who have been jailed for another offence. The former inmates qualified for the scheme because they were serving time for other crimes that were not of a sexual nature.
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The government faced criticism after former inmate Amari Ward, 31, was charged with sexually assaulting a woman on the day he was freed.
Meanwhile, citizens were sent to prison for stirring up hatred and violence online in the aftermath of the Southport attack in the UK.
In August, Jordan Parlour, 28 was jailed for 20 months for advocating an attack on a hotel in Leeds and Tyler Kay, 26, was given three years and two months after calling for people to set fire to hotels housing asylum seekers.
Julie Sweeney, 53, was also jailed for 15 months after posting a comment on Facebook which said: “Blow the mosque up with the adults in it.”