A neo-Nazi helped incite riots in the UK. Elon Musk criticized his punishment.

Hours after a deadly knife attack in the northern English town of Southport last July, Andrew McIntyre set up a Telegram channel called “Southport Wake Up.” Amid posts laced with anti-Islamic, anti-Semitic and anti-immigrant abuse, he called on people to take to the streets, directing them to a mosque and calling for “war”.

Mr McIntyre, 39, who was involved in two of several riots that rocked Britain last summer, was jailed for seven years last Monday.

He pleaded guilty to inciting violent disorder and causing damage, and to possession of a knife. A day after the conviction, Elon Musk, billionaire, technology mogul, appealed the sentence of Mr. McIntyre in a post on his social media platform X, declaring: “Over 7 years in prison for posting on social media…Whoever handed down that sentence deserves a prison term.”

“I think it’s really important to note here how extreme the individuals that Musk is defending and dealing with in recent months in Europe and the United Kingdom,” said Joe Mulhall, director of research at Hope Not Hate, a British agency. advocacy group that investigates extremism, particularly on the far right.

While Mr. Musk has used his platform to endorse Tommy Robinson, Britain’s most famous far-right extremist, the tech billionaire has also spoken out in favor of lesser-known figures like Mr. McIntyre. In doing so, Mr. Mulhall said, Mr. Musk expressed support for a neo-Nazi who was previously a member of fascist groups.

Mr. Musk did not respond to a request for comment.

The summer riots followed a deadly attack at a dance class in Southport on July 29, in which a knife-wielding attacker killed three young girls and injured several others. Disinformation quickly spread on social media, claiming that the suspect, later identified as Axel Rudakubana, was a Syrian asylum seeker who had arrived on a small boat, but was actually born in Wales.

Research conducted by Hope Not Hate showed that Mr. McIntyre used a Telegram account in the hours after the Southport attack to call for violence, then created a TikTok account and a Telegram channel to promote it, calling the latter “Southport Wake Up”. On that Telegram channel, under a pseudonym, he shared a post inciting protests the next day on St. Luke’s Road in Southport, near the scene of the stabbing, and drew a red circle around the mosque on that road. He added the message “it’s time for 🔥WAR TIME”.

On July 30, a violent mob attacked the mosque that Mr. McIntyre pointed out, and dozens of police officers were injured. Days of unrest rocked Britain over the next week, as demonstrators clashed with police, torched cars, attacked mosques and ransacked businesses.

Later, combining the different accounts of Mr. McIntyre’s posts on social media and messaging platforms, Hope Not Hate found his posts on August 3, in which he declared that “Mosques must burn,” and on August 6, in which he called for the killing of all Jews, Muslims and blacks, and adding: “White power”.

His extremism spanned years before the riots. In July 2022, Mr. McIntyre posted a selfie in which he gave the Nazi salute, and after his arrest, police found a copy of “Mein Kampf,” Hitler’s political manifesto, in his home.

Merseyside Police, which oversees policing in the Liverpool area, said Mr McIntyre’s Telegram messages encouraged others to take part in violent disorder and criminal damage in Southport. He also made other “failed attempts to incite disorder elsewhere,” police said in a statement.

Mr McIntyre was involved in riots in Southport on July 30 and in Liverpool on August 3, police said, and had a knife when he was arrested on August 8.

Paula Jones, Detective Inspector at Merseyside Police, said that Mr. McIntyre played a key role in co-ordinating the riots on July 30, using social media to encourage people to travel to Southport and Liverpool to commit criminal damage.

Imprint of Mr. McIntyre’s social media posts included graphic threats of rape and violence against other users. “It’s also a useful case study for understanding the hypocrisy at the heart of Musk when it comes to the Britain debate,” Mr Mulhall said. “On the one hand, Mr. Musk laments the abuse of women by gangs of hairdressers, while at the same time defending the rights of individuals to use social media to send rape and death threats to women.”

The decision of Mr. Musk to restore the once-banned accounts of other members of the British far-right, including Mr. Robinson, significantly strengthened their profile and helped spread extremist ideology, according to groups that follow the extreme right. (Mr. Robinson is currently in jail for contempt of court, although his X account remains active and supporters post for him.)

Sophia Gaston, a British political analyst and visiting fellow at King’s College London, said Musk’s focus on Britain is aligned with wider surveillance of the country by the MAGA movement. Mr Musk has criticized the British government and authorities for efforts to combat hate speech and violent rhetoric, portraying himself as a defender of free speech.

“But there’s a difference between that amplification of voices outside the mainstream of political life and putting the spotlight on those who have been convicted of crimes,” Ms. Gaston said. “In McIntyre’s case, these are not bogus laws about political correctness, which can be open to interpretation. These are the laws on public disorder and violence, which are crucial for the protection of life and property.”