Elon Musk, the CEO of SpaceX and Tesla, publicly supported an antisemitic statement on Wednesday, expressing strong agreement with a tweet that accused Jewish people of 'hatred against whites.' on a social media platform X that he owns.
This started when, A user on the X platform shared a video featuring a father scolding his son for spreading online hatred against Jewish communities. The video is captioned with a call to those hiding behind internet anonymity and posting "Hitler was right": "You have something to say? Why not say it to our faces."
Later on Wednesday night, another user, @breakingbaht, criticised this social media post, accusing Jews of harbouring hatred against whites. @breakingbaht wrote, "Jewish communities have been pushing the exact kind of dialectical hatred against whites that they claim to want people to stop using against them."
Musk responded by calling the tweet 'the actual truth'." In another reply, he expressed, "I am deeply offended by ADL’s messaging and any other groups who push anti-white racism or anti-Asian racism or racism of any kind."
Elon Musk, who has had previous conflicts with the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), issued a threat to sue over the ADL's monitoring of hate speech on his social media platform.
Jonathan Greenblatt, the CEO of the ADL, criticised Musk's support for the antisemitic conspiracy, emphasising the danger of using one's influence to validate and promote such theories during a time when antisemitism is on the rise in America and globally. Greenblatt concluded with the hashtag #NeverIsNow.
Elon Musk's recent statements coincide with a troubling increase in antisemitic incidents globally, including in the US. The UK and Australia have reported significant rises in both antisemitic and Islamophobic harassment, particularly amid the Israel-Hamas conflict.
On Thursday morning, Musk continued to engage in discussions about race, endorsing a tweet that expressed, "Everyone is allowed to be proud of their race, except for white people, because we’ve been brainwashed into believing that our history was somehow ‘worse’ than other races. This false narrative must die."
The tweet triggered immediate and strong backlash, both on X and other social media platforms. Criticism poured in, denouncing Musk’s response as a “white supremacist conspiracy theory,” while simultaneously, there was an emergence of antisemitic support for him.
The Atlantic released an essay titled “Elon Musk’s Disturbing ‘Truth’” criticizing Musk, while MediaMatters headlined their story as “Elon Musk lights his tiki torch,” alluding to the 2017 white supremacist march at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville.
For damage control, Late on Thursday, X’s CEO, Linda Yaccarino, responded to the controversy, condemning antisemitism without explicitly mentioning Musk. She emphasised X's clear stance against discrimination and announced measures, including non-monetization and labelling sensitive media, in response to accounts posting antisemitic material.
In Photo: Linda Yaccarino/ Photo: Mint
Musks Racism-oriented tweets
Musk's stance on racial matters has been evolving for months. In October, he commented on the removal of a statue of Confederate general Robert E. Lee, stating, "They absolutely want your extinction."
Just last week, in response to a tweet claiming, "Racism against white people is the only kind of discrimination that’s allowed," Musk wrote, "It’s messed up and needs to stop." Time for this nonsense to end and shame ANYONE who perpetuates these lies!"
Musk has been accused of allowing antisemitic messages on X since he bought it in November 2022. He has continuously received criticism for supporting content that attacks Jewish people during an increase in antisemitism.
In the previous year, he removed a tweet that humorously compared Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to Adolf Hitler, leading to demands for an apology from the American Jewish Committee. The platform got more attention during the Israel-Hamas conflict because of fake videos and false information spreading.
In a September meeting with Elon Musk, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expressed his hope that the Tesla CEO could find a way to combat antisemitism and other forms of hatred within the bounds of the first amendment.
IBM suspended all its advertisements from X
In a related development on Thursday, IBM, which has faced criticism for its connections to the Nazi party during World War II, responded to a report by Media Matters, by announcing the immediate suspension of all advertising on X .
The report revealed that its ads were displayed alongside content promoting Adolf Hitler and the Nazi party. It also indicated that corporate ads from other companies likeApple, Oracle, and Comcast’s Xfinity along with IBM were appearing alongside antisemitic content.
IBM stated, “We have zero tolerance for hate speech and discrimination and have immediately suspended all advertising on X while we investigate this entirely unacceptable situation.”
X clarified that its system does not purposely position brands "actively next to this kind of content." In response to Media Matters' findings, X announced that the content mentioned would no longer be able to monetize its posts.
Yaccarino, hired by Musk to strengthen relations with advertisers uneasy about content restrictions, emphasised X's commitment to combating discrimination and addressing antisemitism.
White House responded to Musk’s Statement
Two days after Elon Musk, the owner of X, openly supported an antisemitic post, President Joe Biden rebuked Musk's "abhorrent" statement.
In a statement released on Friday, the White House strongly denounced the promotion of antisemitic and racist hate, emphasizing that such actions go against core American values.
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