2023-09-19 11:56:26
Demonstrators protest, in front of the Tesla factory in Fremont (California), against the visit of Benjamin Netanyahu, September 18, 2023. NOAH BERGER / AP
Le multimilliardaire Elon Musk welcomed, Monday September 18, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for a visit to Tesla headquarters. But it was another company belonging to Mr. Musk that was at the heart of the meeting: X (formerly Twitter).
For several weeks, Elon Musk has launched a vigorous campaign against the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), the main organization fighting anti-Semitism in the United States, against which he has filed a complaint. He accuses, without proof, this association of having led a campaign among Twitter’s main advertisers to convince them not to buy advertisements on the social network. For several years, the ADL has published studies showing that the moderation of anti-Semitic messages on Twitter is very ineffective.
Mr. Musk has also increased the number of questionable statements in recent weeks against Jewish billionaire George Sorosand messages evoking a media “conspiracy” against Twitter supported by Jewish organizations, such as the ADL – each time using the codes of anti-Semitic theories. Strongly criticized for these outings, Mr. Musk published a message at the beginning of September ensuring it was “for freedom of expression, but against anti-Semitism in all its forms”.
In Israel, the multi-billionaire’s statements, targeting Mr. Soros in particular, had caused controversy since May. A message accusing Elon Musk of having facilitated the dissemination of anti-Semitic tweets, published by a senior official of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and re-shared by the official account of the ministry, was then disavowed by the minister, Eli Cohen. A few days later, Amichai Chikli, the minister of Diaspora affairs, notably responsible for the fight against anti-Semitism, estimated what “The Israeli government and the vast majority of Israeli citizens view Elon Musk as a fantastic entrepreneur and role model”.
The hard-right government of Benjamin Netanyahu, politically opposed to George Soros, believes that Elon Musk’s messages attacking Mr. Soros are perfectly legitimate. This September 18, at SpaceX headquarters, Mr. Netanyahu invited Elon Musk to “find a balance” between the protection of freedom of expression and the fight against incitement to hatred.
Read also: Elon Musk announces filing a complaint against the main organization fighting anti-Semitism in the United States
A “small monthly payment” for all X users
During the meeting, broadcast live on X, Elon Musk also mentioned the idea of making the use of the social network completely paid. The society “moves towards a small monthly payment for the use of X”Mr. Musk said, believing that this was the only way for the company to prevent the creation of “bots” and fake accounts.
Twitter has historically always been free, but since Elon Musk took control of the company at the end of 2022, he has strongly pushed the development of a subscription system, Twitter Blue, which provides access to many additional features for around ten euros per month. The relative success of this service, however, is not enough, for the moment, to compensate for the losses of the company, which saw a significant part of its advertisers withdraw after the arrival of Mr. Musk, with them receiving a degradation of the quality of the platform.
Elon Musk has been saying for several months that he wants to transform Twitter into a “super application”, including a payment system and banking services, which would require the registration of a payment card for all users. Co-founder of PayPal, from which he was ejected against his will, Mr. Musk has been toying with the idea of launching a new payment service for several years. In a biography of the multi-billionaire published last week, author Walter Isaacson relates that this desire to transform X into a banking service is one of Elon Musk’s fixed ideas.
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