ELON Musk wants us to believe he cares about women. His concern for vulnerable women in the UK under attack by ‘grooming gangs’ — a term only used for sex crimes by South Asian men — comes off as a cruel joke given how he profits every day from the misogyny on the X platform. This is es­­pecially true for women journalists who fa­­­ce harassment, threats, abuse and do not have any access to any reliable redress. Since Musk bought Twitter in 2022, we’ve seen divisive politics move from virtual space into real life with dangerous consequences.

Musk, who will soon be leading a US government efficiency agency, waded into a controversial issue in the UK by tweeting inflammatory rhetoric on Jan 2. He wrote that “a quarter million little girls were — still are — being systematically raped by migrant gangs in Britain.” He then attacked Prime Minister Keir Starmer, for failing to prosecute gangs and demanded a new public inquiry.

The figure of 250,000 is eyewash and there is plenty of evidence to prove Musk is woefully wrong. UK data has shown the majority of child sexual abuse is perpetr­a­ted by a family member, friend or acq­uain­tance. In a majority white country, it means the abusers are likely to be white. Data supports this too. Sadly, evidence just doesn’t make for sensational headlines like the ones that portray Muslim men as villains.

To remind, in 2011, the journalist Andrew Norfolk, reported on child sex abuse scandals across the UK which exposed that a network of men had trafficked and raped hundreds of young girls. An inquiry into the issue found that 1,400 children were abused over 16 years. The men in his first reporting in Rotherham were largely of Pakistani descent and I don’t need to tell you how right-wing media and politicians reacted to that. The vilification remains and forms a large part of the conversation even to date.

The coverage of child sexual abuse has been grounded in racism.

When the story broke, the media coverage ranged from how Norfolk’s story unfairly targeted a minority community when the majority of sexual assault was committed by white men. People on the right said the story did not address ‘anti-white’ racism. Plenty believed that political correctness prevented a ‘serious’ redressal of the issue.

Musk’s tweet has reopened a lot of wounds but also reminded how a lot of the media framed the issue of ‘grooming gangs’ as a ‘Muslim problem’. And how Pakistani men in particular were framed as a threat to ‘our women’. Child sexual exploitation thus became linked to nationality, ‘their’ culture and religion. The government was slammed for protecting ‘them’.

The coverage of a complicated issue of child sexual exploitation has been grounded in racism, misinformation and political point-scoring.

Several inquiries have demonstrated policy failures on investigating these crimes and then adequately addressing them. The chair of the independent investigation into the child abuse scandal, Alexis Jay, who published recommendations in 2022 said on Jan 3 that there were enough inquiries and consultations on the issue, and urged, instead, that her proposals be implemented.

UK Health Secretary Wes Streeting said Musk was misinformed but also invited him to “roll his sleeves up” and “work with us”. Because Musk “has got a big role to play with his social media platform to help us and other countries tackle these serious issues”.

Therein lies the rub: we’ve not really seen Musk attempt to address “serious issues” like misinformation or misogyny on X. Some journalists have said if he cared about women’s sexual abuse he shouldn’t have accepted a position in Donald Trump’s team given that the president has been held liable for abuse.

Musk only wants to protect women from “Muslim men abuse”. This is problematic on so many levels and conveniently suits the far right, whose influence is growing all over the world. Against this backdrop of racial stereotyping which equates Pakistani men in the UK as sexual predators, I’m thinking of the vulnerable victims who will think twice before stepping forward. Many years ago, I read something about women who feared reporting abuse because they didn’t want to add to the ‘Muslim bashing’ in the media. What a terrible burden to carry. Undoubtedly, innocent Muslim men have been falsely accused, physically attacked, even killed because of these false narratives. That Tory shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick blamed “alien cultures [for] mediaeval attitudes towards women” tells you how harmful the approach is and does not serve the victims.

I’m not defending any ethnicity’s abhorrent behaviour as much as I’m hoping for an end to the racial stereotyping. It does not serve the vulnerable children who need the protection. Musk’s goal is to protect his rich friends and allies, not women.

The writer is an instructor of journalism.

X: LedeingLady

Published in Dawn, January 19th, 2025