Elon Musk’s recent Twitter controversy”Joe Biden has excoriated Elon Musk’s “abhorrent” tweets two days after the X owner posted his full-throated agreement with an antisemitic post. By affirming an antisemitic trope, Elon Musk sinks to a dangerous new low,” states Margaret Sullivan.
Musk sparked backlash with his own tweets responding to a user who accused Jewish people of “hating white people” and showing indifference to antisemitism. “You have said the actual truth,” Musk tweeted in reply. X users, including many in the tech industry, lambasted the posts, though other users agreed with Musk and said they were gleefully watching him sink into their hateful worldview.
The White House condemned Musk’s promotion of antisemitic and racist hate in the strongest terms. An IBM study documented how premium X subscribers, who receive blue and white verification checkmarks, were exploiting the Israel-Hamas conflict to spread antisemitism and Islamophobia. IBM immediately suspended all advertising on X while investigating the situation North American markets. IBM said in a statement that they have zero tolerance for hate speech and discrimination.
Other companies have also paused ads on the platform due to an “alarming increase in disinformation and hate speech.” The platform has faced increased scrutiny since the war between Israel and Hamas began last month, with fake videos and disinformation proliferating.
Musk has faced accusations of tolerating antisemitic messages on the platform since purchasing it in November 2022. The Anti-Defamation League, a Jewish civil rights non-profit, has accused Musk of allowing antisemitism and hate speech to spread on the platform. Musk has also cultivated a months-long feud with the organization and threatened to sue. The CEO of the ADL, Jonathan Greenblatt, decried Musk’s endorsement of the antisemitic conspiracy, stating “At a time when antisemitism is exploding in America and surging around the world, it is indisputably dangerous to use one’s influence to validate and promote antisemitic theories. #NeverIsNow.”