Scenes of destruction in Belfast yesterday evening were broadcast around the world, in part because of the sowing of discontent on social media.
Even the world’s richest man stirred up anger by resharing multiple politically-charged posts.
Musk posted: ‘Only by protesting repeatedly and loudly will there be any change!’
He also previously reposted a video of him saying, ‘You either fight back or you die’, with the words: ‘That’s what it comes down to.’
Even as political leaders urged calm while homes and vehicles burned across Belfast, Musk replied to Reform UK’s deputy leader, Richard Tice, and used the opportunity to endorse the party.
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Hours before the riots began, Musk reposted a tweet from Tommy Robinson, who shared a list of protests in Northern Ireland and England.
Musk added to his post: ‘Only by protesting REPEATEDLY and LOUDLY will there be any change.’
Tommy Robinson, meanwhile, who organised dozens of protests around the UK after the brutal attack in Ireland, shared updates from Belfast.
At one point, he shared a clip of a local store on fire, claiming: ‘Foreign businesses are being destroyed in Belfast.’
Robinson also claimed the homes burned in Belfast were all HMOs, or House in Multiple Occupation, meaning multiple people live in the property. Robinson has previously said that HMOs are partially to blame for asylum seeker housing.
Robinson, who has previously spearheaded far-right movements across the UK, also reshared one X post which urged protesters to leave phones at home.
‘Technology and recording devices… don’t help anyone, this is saving our country not for the powers to use it against patriots and shaft us,’ the account claimed.
Some people were forced to flee their homes, and multiple cars and homes were set alight in the disorder on Tuesday, which followed Monday’s knife attack in the north of the city.
The 30-year-old accused, who is Sudanese, is also charged with possession of an article with a blade or point in a public place and making threats to kill.
He is due to appear at Belfast Magistrates’ Court later on Wednesday.
Following widespread condemnation of the incident, anti-immigration demonstrations took place across Northern Ireland on Tuesday evening, with a number descending into disorder.
In London, supporters of Robinson gathered in Parliament Square to protest the killing of Henry Novak and the attack in Belfast.
Metro reporter Brooke Davies was on the scene and saw what began as 50 people flimsily waving the Union Flag suddenly turn into a much more aggressive scene as far-right protesters charged into the road, setting off red smoke flares.
Zahra Ali and Monday Rosenfeld, two girls who had just attended a pro-Palestine march, were swarmed.
Monday, 23, told Metro: ‘I have genuinely never seen anything like this before. That was some of the worst abuse I have ever heard.’
Men, claiming they were there to ‘protect our women and girls’, told her they were going to take her away, drown her and behead her.
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