Billionaire Elon Musk is declaring “war” on a British group that sought to “kill” his X platform — formerly Twitter — by using European Union regulations and legislation here in America, according to a new report. Those involved with the group that wanted to limit the reach of Mr. Musk’s platform have ties to powerful Democrats and Prime Minister Starmer’s Labour Party. 

The reporting from independent journalists Matt Taibbi and Paul Thacker discloses, for the first time, concrete steps to take down the social media platform that Mr. Musk purchased in 2022. According to documents released by Messrs. Taibbi and Thacker, the British anti-disinformation think tank, the Center for Countering Digital Hate, met with Democrats to discuss killing the X platform. 

“Kill Musk’s Twitter,” the group wrote in one bullet point of agenda items ahead of meetings with Senator Klobuchar and Congressman Adam Schiff, both of whom have been part of a push on Capitol Hill to regulate social media platforms. The goal of closing down Mr. Musk’s platform was listed as part of their “annual” goals for 2024.

The documents disclosed by the two independent reporters show that the Center was planning “engagement” with American lawmakers to help with their 2024 goal to “kill” X. “US policy engagement: set up meetings with Klobuchar’s team to seek a quote/press release endorsement. Our meeting with their team is on Tuesday,” the center’s staff wrote in the memo. 

The organization held a conference with Democrats and groups aligned with the Democratic Party, including a Biden administration staffer and an official from the State Department. Also included on that invite list were employees of Media Matters, a liberal media watchdog that devotes most of its time to attacking Fox News Channel. 

“This is war,” Mr. Musk wrote in response to the report. In another post on X, Mr. Musk said CCDH is a “criminal organization.”

“Freedom of speech in the West is at stake in this election — vote for @realDonaldTrump to keep your rights!” the billionaire wrote in another post. 

On the CCDH’s homepage is a photo of Mr. Musk under the headline: “FIGHT BACK AGAINST ELON MUSK.” The group also solicits donations to help cover legal fees for a lawsuit that Mr. Musk initiated. 

The founder of the CCDH, Morgan McSweeney, has ties to both Vice President Harris and Mr. Starmer, according to several reports. Mr. McSweeney served as an advisor to Mr. Starmer during his rise to political power, and founded both CCHD and a think tank with ties to the British government, Labour Together.

A Politico report from this summer disclosed that Mr. McSweeney traveled to Chicago for the Democratic National Convention to meet with members of Ms. Harris’s staff to offer some political advice. 

Earlier this month, Mr. McSweeney was promoted to be the chief of staff at Downing Street for the new Labour government. Neither Ms. Klobuchar, Mr. Schiff, nor Downing Street immediately responded to emails seeking comment. The CCDH similarly did not respond. 

The CCDH’s expressed an interest in killing X by leveraging “EU and UK regulatory action” related to misinformation and hate speech and targeting the platform’s advertisers.