A man falsely accused of murder by Tommy Robinson on X has called for legislation to control Elon Musk’s social media website, arguing it has become a “platform for racism, bigotry, bias, prejudice and disinformation”.
Abdul Hai, who was acquitted of murdering the teenager Richard Everitt in 1994, told the Guardian that he is considering legal action against the social media site formerly known as Twitter, after Robinson, a far-right agitator, posted that he had been convicted of the crime.
Hai said: “There needs to be proper legislation to make social media websites accountable. We need platforms for people to voice their concerns, but there needs to be a framework in place to stop disinformation and false allegations spreading, because for the victims of this, their lives will never be the same again.”
Hai sent a legal warning to X at the end of August, accusing it of failing to promptly to take down Robinson’s remarks, which he says remained on the site for more than three weeks and were seen more than 375,000 times.
The battle centres around a post from Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, made on the anniversary of the murder of Everitt, a 15-year-old who was stabbed in London on 13 August 1994 in what a judge later ruled was “an unprovoked racial attack”. The teen had been murdered by “a gang of Bangladeshis” wrote Robinson, adding that Badrul Miah, Showat Akbar and Hai had been “convicted” of his killing.
In fact, Miah was given a life-sentence for conspiring to murder Everitt and Akbar was found guilty of violent disorder. At the end of the prosecution’s argument, the judge in the case told the jury to acquit Hai, ruling that there was no evidence that he was among the group that had killed Everitt.
Hai reported the post immediately, and sent Robinson a short letter stating he was found not guilty. “He is someone I was fearful of getting in touch with, but I felt he needed to know that it was wrong,” said Hai.
Three days later, on 16 August, the tweet disappeared. Then Robinson made another post, this time posting a screengrab of the original and explaining to his one million followers that he had deleted the original to avoid having his account suspended while he appealed its removal. “I deleted it, as it’ll take days for their appeal,” he wrote.
Hai has said that this “makes a mockery” of X’s rules. Through lawyers, Hai reported the follow-up post, but said he received no reply. On 28 August his lawyers sent X a letter before claim – a legal shot across the bows – demanding the removal of the post and a reply before 11 September.
The company removed the post on 6 September and responded to Hai’s lawyers a day before the deadline, stating that X’s aim was to further “the public conversation”, adding that users shared information of public interest, “and as a result the public at large benefits”. It stated that users could report content that violated its terms, adding: “We reviewed the post and [have] taken appropriate action.” The post had been removed.
But Hai has argued that X – which researchers argue has played a part in the resurgence of far-right violence in the UK, in part due to Musk’s decision to allow figures like Robinson to return – has not done enough to uphold its own policies, and called on MPs to pass legislation to curb hate-speech and disinformation on social media sites.
Harry Eccles-Williams, a partner at the law firm Mishcon de Reya, said that legal action against X had to be taken in the US, where section 230 of the Communications Decency Act protects social media platforms from legal liability for content posted by users.
He said that since Elon Musk bought X, its content moderation team has been severely cut and there has been a proliferation of harmful content. “At the moment there is little that can be done. However, the Online Safety Act has the potential to change things, and I foresee a major confrontation between X and Ofcom in 2025.”
Hai stressed his belief in freedom of speech, and the right to protest. “Those rights must be protected at all cost,” he said. “But freedom of speech comes with responsibility.”
An X spokesperson said: “To comply with UK law, X actioned certain posts concerning Mr. Hai. This action was swiftly completed on September 6, 2024, ahead of the deadline requested by Mr. Hai’s legal team.”