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TO UPDATE: The White House has responded to Elon Musk’s amplification of an X/Twitter post earlier this week that promoted an anti-Semitic conspiracy theory.
“It is unacceptable to repeat the vile lie behind the deadliest act of anti-Semitism in American history at any time, let alone a month after the deadliest day for the Jewish people since the Holocaust,” White House spokesman Andrew Bates said.
Bates was referring to the 2018 Tree of Life Synagogue shooting in Pittsburgh and the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7.
Bates added: “We condemn in the strongest terms this vile promotion of anti-Semitic and racist hatred, which runs counter to our core values as Americans.” “You told the actual truth,” Musk responded.
On Wednesday, Musk supported an propagated the “great replacement theory,” or the claim that Jewish people want to bring undocumented non-white people to Western countries in order to reduce white influence. The convicted murderer in the Tree of Life shootings had adopted this theory.
Musk later tried to clarify his post by calling the Anti-Defamation League a group that “unfairly attacks the majority of the West, even though the majority of the West supports the Jewish people and Israel.”
X/Twitter has addressed a Media Matters report that showed big brands’ advertising was placed alongside Nazi content on the platform, despite CEO Linda Yaccarino’s attempts to promote the social media site as a safe place for Sponsors. IBM said it was withdrawing from its investigation into the report.
Other brands named in the Media Matters report – including Apple, Oracle, Xfinity and Bravo – have not yet announced their advertising plans.
BEFORE, Thursday: Elon Musk is once again in a tizzy over one of his X/Twitter posts, this time agreeing with a user’s comment that Jews have a “hatred against white people.”
The tweet drew even more attention to X/Twitter, which Musk owns, and the spread of anti-Semitic posts following the Hamas terrorist attack on Israel on October 7.
IBM announced it would stop advertising on the platform after a report from Media Matters showed that major brands were placing their ads next to posts promoting the Nazi Party.
“IBM does not tolerate hate speech or discrimination and we have immediately stopped all advertising on X while we investigate this completely unacceptable situation,” a company spokesman said in a statement to the Financial Times and other media outlets.
Media Matters featured additional posts that, in addition to pro-Nazi and pro-Hitler content, also featured advertising from Bravo, Oracle and Xfinity.
Linda Yaccarino, CEO of and everyone should agree on that. With regard to this platform, X has also made our efforts to combat anti-Semitism and discrimination very clear. There is no place for it anywhere in the world – it is ugly and wrong. Point.”
Yaccarino has tried to convince advertisers that X/Twitter is a safe place to place their commercials. She wrote on Tuesday: “We always work to protect public discussion.”
But Musk’s post Wednesday reinforced a longstanding anti-Semitic accusation about the grand replacement theory.
One user wrote: “Jewish communities have propagated exactly the kind of dialectical hatred of white people that they supposedly want people to stop using against them.” I am profoundly uninterested in giving a damn about it now , that the Western Jewish population is coming to the disturbing realization that the hordes of minorities supporting the flooding of their land don’t particularly like them. You want the truth told to your face, there it is.”
Musk’s response was, “You were telling the actual truth.”
Jonathan Greenblatt, the CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, wrote of Musk’s post: “At a time when anti-Semitism is exploding in America and rising around the world, using your influence to validate anti-Semitic theories is undeniably dangerous and to promote.”
Musk later tried to defend his post by writing: “The ADL is unfairly attacking the majority of the West, even though the majority of the West supports the Jewish people and Israel.” That’s because, according to their own principles, they don’t “Can criticize minority groups that represent their greatest threat.” Musk had previously threatened to sue ADL.
Musk was scheduled to speak at a session on AI at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit today, but was replaced by John Kerry. Organizers said a scheduling change prevented his participation and that they declined his offer to speak remotely.
The Center for Countering Digital Hate reported in an audit study published this week that after a week, X/Twitter had failed to remove 196 of 200 posts it reported to the platform’s moderators for violating its terms of service. The content included posts threatening violence against Muslims, Palestinians and Jews, as well as messages that were blatantly anti-Semitic and anti-Muslim. .