Elon Musk has come under fire once again for ‘amplifying’ misinformation, this time around Netflix drama Adolescence.
The smash hit drama, starring Stephen Graham and Erin Doherty, landed on the platform last week and has accumulated over 24 million views.
Divided into four one-take episodes, the series follows 13-year-old Jamie, who rising star Owen Cooper plays in his first-ever acting job, as he is accused of killing a female classmate, Katie (Emilia Holliday).
Jamie’s parents (portrayed by Christine Tremarco and Graham) are then forced to face the shocking incident as officers investigate the impact of his radicalisation and incel culture affecting young boys.
Adolescence has been praised worldwide for its extremely real—albeit terrifying—depiction of misogyny and how little many parents know about the ideologies their children are exposed to online.
However, as discourse rages on about how true-to-life the drama is, X owner Musk has been heavily criticised for permitting mistruths about its story to spread.
Taking to the platform this weekend, @stillgray shared a picture from episode 1, writing: ‘Netflix has a show called Adolescence that’s about a British knife killer who stabbed a girl to death on a bus and it’s based on real-life cases such as the Southport murderer.
‘So guess what. They race-swapped the actual killer from a black man/migrant to a white boy and the story has it that he was radicalized online by the red pill movement.
‘Just the absolute state of anti-white propaganda.’
The user, real name Ian Miles Cheong, boasts 1.2 million followers and his post has been viewed almost five million times.
Responding to it, Musk, who has an astronomical following of 220 million, voiced his surprise, writing simply: ‘Wow’.
Both have since been called out and enlightened on the actual influence behind Adolescence, with @Shayan86 explaining: ‘Adolescence is not based on the Southport attack or a single case. It was already in production and being filmed before Southport happened.’
Indeed, the Southport tragedy happened on July 29 last year, as 18-year-old Axel Rudakubana attacked children at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class, killing three girls and seriously injuring 10 others. Adolescence was filmed over six months between March and September.
‘The amount of viral nonsense that is posted as news on this app, often amplified by Elon Musk, is mind-boggling’, the X user added.
Echoing their thoughts, @Sensanetional said the prevalence of misinformation was ‘concerning’ and @priestleyl branded X a ‘hell site’.
As for what motivated Jack Thorne and Liverpudlian actor Graham to write Adolescence, the Boiling Point star has talked candidly about why he felt it was important to make.
In various interviews, Graham has explained that while the miniseries is not directly founded on one particular case, he drew inspiration from a series of shocking knife-related crimes.
‘Where it came from, for me, is there was an incident in Liverpool, a young girl, and she was stabbed to death by a young boy. I just thought, “Why?”,’ Graham began to Radio Times magazine.
‘Then there was another young girl in south London who was stabbed to death at a bus stop. And there was this thing up North, where that young girl, Brianna Ghey, was lured into the park by two teenagers, and they stabbed her.
‘I just thought, “What’s going on? What is this that’s happening?”‘
The This is England star added at a Netflix event earlier this year that the idea was ’10 years’ in the making.
‘We’ve seen an epidemic of knife crime amongst young lads up and down the country,’ Graham began.
‘And for me, there were certain instances that really stuck out were young boys—and they are young boys, you know? They’re not men—were killing young girls.
‘When I mentioned it to Phil [Barantini, director], it just really hit me hard.’
Graham also told Tudum that he wanted the show to ‘shine a spotlight’ on the alarming behaviour of these boys, who had been radicalised in online forums by the beliefs of figures like Andrew Tate.
‘One of our aims was to ask, “What is happening to our young men these days and what are the pressures they face from their peers, from the internet, and from social media?”,’ Graham continued. ‘And the pressures that come from all of those things are as difficult for kids here as they are the world over.’
The makers of Adolescence also wanted to show Jamie’s family life as secure and caring, which only served to emphasise how dangerous the internet can be for youngsters in their bedrooms at night.
‘When these things are on the news, your judgement instantly goes to blaming the family, you blame the mum and dad,’ Graham shared in January.
‘We’re all guilty of it because that’s the easy common denominator. I just thought, “What if that’s not the case at all?”‘
Regarding Elon Musk, is anyone paying any attention to his writings these days? He is a very pitiful person who, instead of sowing discord and hatred, could be accomplishing so much more with his influence.
Is there anything Musk won’t butt in on! He simply leaps in, circulating his own opinion without sound research.
The series was great, in my opinion, and it emphasises how important it is for parents to know what their children are exposed to online.
Anyone with half a brain can see this amazing programme has nothing to do with Southport, or indeed ethnicity, and in various discussions, Graham demonstrated that while the miniseries was not directly founded on one particular case, he drew inspiration from a series of shocking knife-related crimes.
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