Humza Yousaf has described Elon Musk "as one of the most dangerous men on the planet".
The former First Minister made the comments as he was questioned at an Edinburgh Fringe show this afternoon.
Speaking at an All Talk with Iain Dale performance at the Pleasance, the host Matthew Stadlen put it to Mr Yousaf how he thought political leaders should tackle the issue of far right radicalisation online when Mr Musk, who owns X, formerly known as Twitter was making comments seen as inciteful online.
"Anyone who suggests racism is the preserve of the working class is wrong," he said launching an attack on both the Reform UK leader Nigel Farage and the tech billionaire Mr Musk.
READ MORE: Swinney: Social media must crack down on 'dangerous' disinformation
"Nigel Farage has spent his entire political career making money from dog whistle politics. If there's a dog whistle to be blown, he’ll be first in the queue to blow it," he said.
"And of course, [he’s] bosom buddies with Elon Musk. In my opinion Elon Musk is one of the most dangerous men on the planet. He is not accountable to anybody.
"He has vast wealth...he is not an idiot, he is a very smart man, very tech savvy."
He added: "He does it with a question mark..tries to pose it as an innocent question, but he is using his wealth to amplify the far right.
READ MORE: Yousaf admits he 'f***ed' up over how he ended Bute House deal
"Anyone who is on X will see what a difference there has been to that platform since Elon Musk has taken over."
Mr Yousaf went on to urge Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer to do more to tackle misinformation and far right messaging online - blamed for fuelling riots which have been taking place since last week in England and Northern Ireland following the deaths of three young girls in Southport.
He also said he did not think X should be shut down for a temporary period and he believed the platform could be used as a "force for good" to counter misinformation.
However, he added it should be regulated.
His call for regulation of social media platforms comes after First Minister John Swinney said the companies needed to improve how they cracked down on ‘false information’ with Ofcom reminding both Facebook and X, formerly Twitter, of their duties to stop disinformation.
Speaking on BBC Radio Scotland’s Good Morning Scotland programme, Mr Swinney said: “I think the social media companies have got a lot of improvement to undertake in their conduct."
It is not the first time, the former SNP leader has strongly criticised Mr Musk.
Last year Mr Yousaf hit back at a claim by Mr Musk that he was a "blatant racist".
Mr Musk posted the comment on X in response to an edited clip of a speech Mr Yousaf gave after the murder of George Floyd.
A spokesman for Mr Yousaf said Mr Musk should instead "tackle racism and hatred that goes unchecked on the social media platform he owns".
He also said Mr Yousaf had been on the receiving end of racism his whole life.
The then first minister's name was trending on X, after Mr Musk tweeted about him. Mr Yousaf then reacted by posting: "Racists foaming at the mouth at my very existence."
Mr Musk, who has more than 160 million followers, had replied "What a blatant racist!" in response to a post by a prominent right-wing social media account. It had shown an edited 45 second clip of a lengthy speech Mr Yousaf made in the Scottish Parliament in June 2020.
A fact check carried out by the Reuters news agency in February last year concluded that the clip misrepresented Mr Yousaf's comments by suggesting he had been arguing that Scotland contained too many white people.
Reuters said: "Yousaf's speech was given as part of a wider discussion about racial injustice and the lack of people of colour in positions of power in the Scottish Parliament and government.
"The speech did not assert that white people make up too large a proportion of Scotland's overall population."
Mr Yousaf gave his speech the month after the murder of African-American George Floyd on a Minneapolis street sparked worldwide protests against racism and excessive use of force by police.
Mr Yousaf, who was justice secretary at the time, told MSPs that the country had to "accept the reality and the evidence that is in front of us, that Scotland has a problem of structural racism".
He went on to say "in 99% of their meetings I go to, I am the only non-white person in the room".
Mr Yousaf has spoken in the past about the racism he has had to face throughout his life
Mr Yousaf then listed a number of positions - including the lord advocate, solicitor general and Police Scotland chief constable - and, after each, added: "white".
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel