On Wednesday, an X consumer made an antisemitic publish that accused Jewish folks of advocating for hatred in opposition to “whites.” Musk replied by writing “you have got stated the precise reality.”
The claims within the publish had been based mostly on longstanding antisemitic tropes that painting Jewish folks as secretly controlling the world and having twin allegiances. Whereas some variations of these racist conspiracy theories have existed for hundreds of years, even millennia, their most up-to-date iteration is the “Nice Alternative Idea,” which posits that Jewish folks need folks of shade to immigrate to majority white international locations in an effort to completely alter their demographics. A portion of the publish Musk preferred talked about “hordes of minorities,” an obvious reference to this idea.
Musk’s publish is simply his newest brush with bigotry. Since buying the then-Twitter in October 2022, civil rights teams have accused Musk of permitting hate speech to proliferate on the platform.
In simply the primary two weeks after Musk purchased the location, antisemitic posts elevated 61%, based on the Council for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH), a non-profit that tracks hate speech on the web. In August, their claims incensed Musk to the purpose that X filed a lawsuit in opposition to the CCDH for allegedly conducting a “scare marketing campaign to drive away advertisers.” Because the begin of the Israel-Hamas struggle final month, the CCDH discovered that hate speech on the platform solely worsened. The group launched a report displaying that 98% of 200 posts it reported for violating X’s tips remained on the location.
This wasn’t the primary time Musk has threatened authorized motion in opposition to an advocacy group. In September, Musk threatened to sue the Anti-Defamation League, the civil rights group that focuses on addressing antisemitism, for “attempting to kill” X, he stated. Musk then met with ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt, in a gathering that was meant to clear the air. Greenblatt instructed CNBC he left the assembly nonetheless involved however was nonetheless “inspired.”
Following as much as Wednesday’s unique antisemitic publish, Musk talked about the ADL by title. “The ADL unjustly assaults the vast majority of the West, regardless of the vast majority of the West supporting the Jewish folks and Israel,” Musk wrote in a publish. “It’s because they can not, by their very own tenets, criticize the minority teams who’re their main menace. It isn’t proper and must cease.”
On Thursday, Greenblatt condemned Musk’s latest feedback. “At a time when antisemitism is exploding in America and surging all over the world, it’s indisputably harmful to make use of one’s affect to validate and promote antisemitic theories,” Greenblatt wrote.
Musk’s newest posts additionally drew condemnation from throughout the enterprise group. Fb cofounder Dustin Moskovitz, who’s now the CEO of software program firm Asana, referred to as on Musk to resign. Wednesday’s publish additionally caught the eye of X’s advertisers, a lot of whom had already been cautious about advertising on the platform due to the rampant hate speech and Musk’s conduct. As of Thursday, IBM pulled its promoting from X following the Musk’s publish and information that its advertisements had appeared subsequent to pro-Nazi posts.
This comes after X’s new CEO, Linda Yaccarino, a longtime advert exec at NBCUniversal, spent months attempting to rebuild the platform’s repute with advertisers. In September, At Vox Media’s Code Convention, Yaccarino stated 90% of the highest 100 advertisers had returned to the platform, although she didn’t specify whether or not they had been spending the identical quantity.
Shortly after agreeing with the antisemitic publish on Wednesday, and after the firestorm over it had already began, Musk took to X to defend himself by interacting together with his supporters on the platform “Elon isn’t anti-semitic lmfao [sic],” one X consumer wrote, utilizing a profane abbreviation for laughter. “Feelings are inflicting folks to lose their minds.” Musk replied to that remark with the “100” emoji, indicating that he agreed.
Musk’s publish from Wednesday stays on X and has not been eliminated.