Elon Musk has threatened to sue the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) for billions of {dollars} after quixotically blaming the Jewish rights organisation for spreading antisemitism on his social media platform X.
The self-proclaimed “free speech absolutist”, who has amplified and reinstated neo-Nazi and far-right accounts since buying X, previously generally known as Twitter, for $44bn final 12 months blamed the ADL for “destroying” $22bn within the firm’s worth in a sequence of posts on Monday.
“Because the acquisition, The ADL has been attempting to kill this platform by falsely accusing it & me of being anti-Semitic,” Mr Musk wrote.
He claimed that the positioning’s United States promoting income was down 60 per cent “primarily resulting from strain on advertisers by ADL”.
“If this continues, we can have no alternative however to file a defamation swimsuit towards, satirically, the ‘Anti-Defamation’ League.”
An ADL spokesperson informed The Impartial in a press release that it didn’t touch upon authorized threats, however added that Mr Musk was serving to to spice up a coordinated “Ban the ADL” marketing campaign being waged by self-declared antisemites.
“ADL is unsurprised but undeterred that antisemites, white supremacists, conspiracy theorists and different trolls have launched a coordinated assault on our organisation. One of these factor is nothing new,” the ADL spokesperson mentioned.
“Such insidious efforts don’t daunt us. As a substitute, they drive us to be unflinching in our dedication to struggle hate in all its types and make sure the security of Jewish communities and different marginalised teams.”
Mr Musk’s threats to sue the ADL, a century-old NGO that describes itself because the “main anti-hate organisation on the earth”, have been met with anger and disbelief from some commentators on X.
“In his pursuit of some type of utopian free speech universe, Elon Musk has turned Twitter / X right into a free-for-all for Neo Nazis and White Extremists to unleash a torrent of unprecedented antisemitism and Jew hatred,” wrote Israeli human rights lawyer Arsen Ostrovsky.
NYU professor Ruth Ben-Ghiat posted: “So it is the Jews manipulating others. Elon Musk that’s so unique!”
Since Mr Musk’s takeover, advertisers have fled the platform or diminished their advert spend as hateful content material was allowed to unfold unchecked.
Mr Musk, the world’s richest particular person with an estimated internet wealth of $248bn, fired an estimated 80 per cent of its workforce, together with most of its content material moderators, and reinstated beforehand banned accounts.
X’s US promoting income over a five-week interval from April to Might this 12 months got here to $88m, a 59 % lower from one 12 months in the past, in accordance with the New York Instances.
In August, X filed a lawsuit towards the Heart for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) after it revealed a report displaying that moderators had did not take motion on 99 out of 100 examples of dangerous content material by verified “blue examine” customers that the organisation had flagged.
“Musk is attempting to ‘shoot the messenger’ who highlights the poisonous content material on his platform slightly than cope with the poisonous surroundings he’s created,” CEO Imran Ahmed mentioned in a assertion.
“CCDH has no intention of stopping our unbiased analysis – Musk is not going to bully us into silence.”
The Impartial tried to achieve Mr Musk by X, Tesla and through a private e mail tackle however didn’t hear again.