Elon Musk has done nothing but harm by wading into the grooming scandal, which he knows so little about

Money talks, as they say – and if you’re the richest person on the planet (and in possession of your very own social media platform), then the amplification that can be exerted on your random thoughts is awesome indeed. The problem with Elon Musk and his increasingly fevered interventions on what used to be Twitter, as with many ultra-rich tycoons in the past, is that none of what he says makes much sense.

Brilliant businessman and protean in his talents as he may be, even Mr Musk hasn’t the time or the experience to properly understand what happened during the grooming gangs scandal in England that emerged some 15 years ago.

Still less does he seem to have much idea of who was responsible, what the authorities did and did not do, nor how the British political and legal system work. He’s posted more than 40 times on the scandal in a 24-hour period – and appears not to be getting much rest.

He has created, out of lies and twisted facts, a Manichean world where Tommy Robinson – a man who almost collapsed a trial for mass rape – into a hero, and those who have worked tirelessly for the protection of women and girls into agents of evil.

Ironically, Mr Musk’s latest activities seem to be a powerful case study into what happens when someone spends too much time on social media; sincerely believes that it is a reliable source of news and analysis; and falls prey to easily disproved conspiracy theories, misinformation and disinformation.

As a “free speech absolutist”, he is not helping the cause by propagating dangerous myths. He seems to have no one around him to exercise restraint, so much so that he even turned on Nigel Farage, an embarrassingly servile supporter, for having the temerity to disagree with him.

Mr Musk is inflicting great damage to others, as well as to his own reputation. It’s hard to imagine that he can be devoting that much time to his businesses, nor his imminent appointment as co-head of the US Department of Government Efficiency (Doge). It gives rise to the thought that the entire Musk empire might collapse under the weight of its emperor’s obsessions.

None of that, however, has stopped him from making a stream of ever more deranged-sounding and obsessional postings on X (formerly Twitter), with a focus on the safeguarding minister, Jess Phillips – and the prime minister, Sir Keir Starmer.

His remarks are more than merely wrong – they are obscene and amount to incitement to violence. What, in other words, might go through the mind of someone rightly angered by the grooming scandal but who took Mr Musk’s words at face value?

The assertion, say, that “Starmer repeatedly ignored the pleas of vast numbers of little girls and their parents, in order to secure political support” – and that the prime minister is “despicable”, “complicit in the rape of Britain” “for votes”. Or that Ms Phillips is a “rape genocide apologist”?

Mr Musk is already a key adviser to Donald Trump; a sometimes styled “first buddy” – and will exert considerable influence in the second Trump administration. So what he says carries additional complications and would normally be dealt with quietly.

That does not appear to be a viable option with Mr Musk. Diplomatic incident or not, therefore, Sir Keir was right to defend his record and Ms Phillips against these unprecedented and astonishingly misguided attacks. The billionaire and the X gang have, as the prime minister says, “crossed a line”.

They can be ignored no longer as mere “shock jocks”, because into the vacuum on social media generated by Sir Keir’s dignified silence there have flowed ever more wild accusations and untruths – ones that not only distort politics, but distress the survivors and obscure the truth about what happened to them.

Sir Keir is right to stress the actions he took in his time as chief prosecutor – a time when (for well-known and bad reasons), too few of the cases ever made it as far as the Crown Prosecution Service.

Under Sir Keir, victims would be “believed”, cases reopened, the gangs pursued. The recommendations of the national inquiry into child exploitation – the result of a very wide review – will be implemented in full, including mandatory reporting.

Mr Musk has done nothing but harm by dabbling in the most emotive of issues with so little knowledge, and no good cause.

The best that can be done by the British government now is to cooperate with Oldham Council in the local inquiry into crimes and cover-ups in their area. They must urgently implement the full findings of the Jay report and continue the hard work against the “endemic” exploitation that Professor Alexis Jay identified.

Postings on X are no way to secure justice of any kind – indeed, they may have quite the opposite effect.