After the scandal over Nazi content in Twitter’s successor, X, other major advertising clients are turning their backs on Musk’s online platform. And the White House accuses the Tesla boss of spreading anti-Semitism.
The controversial publication on Platform X, formerly Twitter, did not come from Elon Musk himself, but from another user. He said, among other things, that “Jewish communities” were fomenting “hatred against whites.” The background is a far-right conspiracy narrative according to which Jews are pursuing a secret plan to bring illegal immigrants to Western countries in order to weaken the white majority. Musk wrote: “You told the truth.”
This approval was highly criticized in the United States. The White House accused the Tesla boss of spreading anti-Semitism. A statement said this was unacceptable and “We condemn in the strongest terms this abhorrent promotion of anti-Semitic and racist hatred.”
Dispute between ADL and Musk
Musk later qualified his statement. He refers to “some groups” such as the NGO Anti-Defamation League (ADL), which he claims spreads anti-white racism and anti-Asian racism. There have been tensions between both sides for a long time.
The ADL criticized that very little was done on Twitter to combat anti-Semitism and hate. Musk accused the ADL of being to blame for the decline in advertising clients on She even threatened to sue the organization.
ADL CEO Josh Greenblatt stated in early September on CNBC that violence against Jews had increased markedly in the United States. If Elon Musk spreads and amplifies anti-Semitic voices on X, that would be “very problematic.”
Musk encourages right-wing circles
Musk has 160 million followers on
Sarah Frier, a journalist for the Bloomberg economic news service, stated on the “Elon Inc” podcast that Musk’s statements especially attracted the attention of right-wing circles: although he only waves in the direction of right-wing circles, he encourages these groups to participate every time more impartially on social media, as well as to express X.
X loses more major advertising clients
Musk’s network For example, computer company IBM stopped advertising on X after the company’s ads were discovered alongside Nazi publications. IBM said this was unacceptable. And Apple, Disney and the Lionsgate movie studio no longer want to show advertising on X.
The non-profit organization Media Matters had previously shown that ads from other companies, such as Apple or the software company Oracle, were also published on X, along with messages with positive comments about Adolf Hitler. The EU Commission also does not want to put any more publicity on X at the moment. This was justified by the increase in misinformation and hate speech.