After traveling to Israel in November, Elon Musk visited the Nazi death camp Auschwitz-Birkenau on Monday and attended a conference on anti-Semitism, which has worsened since Israel's offensive in Gaza began. In November, he asserted that his time in Israel had been “not an apology tour,” but this came shortly after he was accused of anti-Semitism over a comment on X (formerly Twitter) that earned him the withdrawal of major advertisers. Musk, who says he has “Jewish ambitions,” has defended free speech on his platform against any filter against hate speech, claiming there are fewer attacks against that community there than on other networks.
The tech tycoon moves comfortably between far-right ideological positions but rejects accusations of anti-Semitism. The owner of Tesla and SpaceX also attributes them to an attempt by the media to cancel X because “it is direct competition” to them. “They are looking for all possible points of attack against us,” he said in a conversation with conservative political commentator Ben Shapiro in the Polish city of Krakow after a site visit.
Musk continues to strongly defend freedom of expression on X against moderation or filters that limit hate messages. “The Nazis strictly censored anything that was pro-Semitic in Germany,” he argued. “Freedom of expression is one of the ways to defeat hatred. Maybe like that,” he insisted.
As he explained to the participants of the conference organized by the European Association of Jews in Poland, the platform allows highlighting and correcting falsehoods through notes in the news. “It is the greatest source of truth in the world,” he has defended, striving “to be as precise as possible and to minimize the error between what is said and reality.” According to a classification made by an of former President Donald Trump, who was permanently banned because of the risk of inciting violence on the Capitol. on January 6, 2021 or more recently that of Alex Jones, a conspiracy theorist who was convicted for his false reports.
After visiting Auschwitz-Birkenau with his three-year-old son, a trip that he said would take several days to process, the businessman agreed with conference organizers that the Holocaust “had existed, if there had been social networks back then.” impossible to hide.” “If there had been freedom of expression…” he added.
Musk, who has criticized pro-Palestinian demonstrations in US cities and universities, said that X is the social network with “the lowest level of anti-Semitism.” “It will never be zero, but if you compare it to others like Instagram or TikTok. (…) I think TikTok has five times more,” he said, without giving a number.
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Controversial messages
The richest man in the world defines himself in his biography in X as the boss of the trolls. Musk likes to provoke controversy and his list of unfortunate messages is long as he plays an increasingly prominent role in global geopolitics. In November, he responded to a message from a user who accused Jews of hating whites and, in line with the white supremacist conspiracy theory of the Great Replacement, claimed that Jews were supporting “hordes of minorities” who were “flooding” the country. “You told the honest truth,” Musk tweeted.
The tweet sparked outrage and cost him the loss of advertising clients including Disney, Apple and IBM. Musk didn't seem to care much, because at a meeting organized by the New York Times in New York, he replied: “Fuck you.” However, he admitted that his message was “one of the stupidest.”
This Monday, Musk defended himself against any accusation of anti-Semitism by asserting that most of his friends were Jewish, that he attended a Jewish school as a child, that his name was “pretty Jewish” and that he traveled to Israel when he was was 13… “I’m Jewish? “I’m Jewish,” he said jokingly. In Israel, where he was received almost like a head of state, he gave Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu the authority to authorize the use of his Starlink satellite network's connectivity in the Gaza Strip. This Monday in Krakow, Rabbi Menachem Margolin, chairman of the Association of European Jews, described him as “a strong voice in the fight against anti-Semitism.”
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