Since his election in 2024, Rupert Lowe MP has reportedly made over £100,000 from his posts on Twitter/X. Or, to put it another way, the far-right Restore Britain leader has reportedly averaged over £900 an hour for his racist slop-posting.
An MP’s standard salary is (an already exorbitant) £98,599. As such, Lowe is now set to make money for posting hatred on trillionaire-turned-billionaire Elon Musk’s social media platform than he does from the job he was elected to do.
That is a massive problem for our democracy.
Money for hate
Since Musk’s takeover of Twitter/X, the level of extreme-right content has risen dramatically. In fact, much of it is personally promoted by the site’s owner. The platform also faced a massive public backlash recently over its AI chatbot’s creation of thousands of indecent images of both children and adults.
Musk previously backed Nigel Farage as leader of Reform UK/future prime minister. However, that changed due to the party leader’s (lukewarm) condemnation of extreme-right grifter Tommy Robinson.
Because Musk is also a massive fan of Robinson, the Twitter owner shifted his backing to Rupert Lowe and Restore Britain.
Lowe is making his ludicrous side paycheck through Twitter/X’s ‘creator revenue’ programme — a monetisation scheme for ‘premium’ users. In one particularly egregious example, a single £11,724.97 payment landed on 10 June — for five hours’ work. That’s £2,345 an hour.
The Independentreported that:
Lowe enjoys a considerable amount of engagement on his posts, which boosts revenue secured by the programme.
His five posts on 24 August alone garnered 683,000 views and over 70,000 likes on the platform.
One post, which received 20,000 likes, called for foreign nationals living in social housing to be deported.
That post read:
The honest truth is that if a foreign national is living in social housing and unable to financially support themselves? They don’t just need to be evicted from the building. They need to be removed from the country.
Rupert Lowe — Algorithmic incentives
Last month, on 1 July, MPs debated the ethics and ramifications of their colleagues holding lucrative second jobs/sources of income. In particular, Lib Dem Lisa Smart singled out Lowe’s Twitter/X posting, and Musk’s role in amplifying it:
Given the international nature of social media companies’ revenue streams, the role that Elon Musk has attempted to play in US politics and the views that he has increasingly expressed about UK politics, we should ensure that there are limitations in place to prevent potential income from social media platforms from unduly influencing politicians. We know the way that the algorithms that these platforms use push content that evokes more feeling, because it drives engagement. Therefore, the more divisive and hate-filled the content, the more some of the algorithms allow it to be seen.
Because of the obvious issues with a politician being paid directly in proportion to the level of hateful rhetoric they post, Smart proposed a solution. She suggested an amendment to the Representation of the People Bill, which would prohibit:
members of registered parties, members associations, holders of relevant elective offices and electoral candidates from receiving any payment, remuneration, or financial benefit in exchange for posting, promoting, or interacting with content on social media.
The House hasn’t yet considered the amendment, which is currently in the report stage.
The fact that an MP is permitted to hold a second job/major source of income is ludicrous in and of itself. Surely, representing one’s constituents should be a full-time job?
However, the fact that Lowe makes his money from a platform which actively rewards posting ever-more-extreme content is well beyond that. It’s a clear threat to our democracy and public discourse, and it needs ending quickly and for good.
Featured image via the Canary
By Grace
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