Tech tycoon Elon Musk reportedly accused the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), whose claimed goal is to combat antisemitism and hate speech, of trying to kill X, the website formerly known as Twitter, and threatened legal action.
Our US advertising revenue is still down 60%, primarily due to pressure on advertisers by @ADL (that’s what advertisers tell us), so they almost succeeded in killing X/Twitter!
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 4, 2023
Musk, the owner of the social media network, said that a drop in ad revenue was the result of the hate-speech watchdog group wrongly alleging him of being antisemitic in a series of X posts published on Monday.
A few hours later, he returned to X and announced that the business will sue the ADL for slander.
To clear our platform’s name on the matter of anti-Semitism, it looks like we have no choice but to file a defamation lawsuit against the Anti-Defamation League … oh the irony!
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 4, 2023
As a matter of policy, the ADL stated that it refrains from commenting on legal threats. However, the group made note that it just met with X leadership, including CEO Linda Yaccarino, whom Musk appointed to aid in the revival of advertising revenues.
The platform’s owner, Elon Musk, has recently liked and commented on a number of posts that are critical of the company.
The ADL charged Musk with “lifting” the #BanTheADL campaign that had taken off on X.
Certain far-left activist organizations, such as the Center for Countering Digital Hate, have alleged that under Musk’s leadership, the level of hate speech on the website has increased significantly.
Musk filed a lawsuit against the CCDH last month, accusing the nonprofit organization of attempting to intentionally scare away advertisers by publishing analyses that were critical of the platform’s handling of offensive content.
By inappropriately gathering information about Twitter that the firm had given to a third-party brand monitoring provider and by urging an unknown person to do so, it specifically alleges that CCDH breached the platform’s terms of service and federal hacking statutes.
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Mr. Musk has done nothing to provoke them! He is the last person on the planet that would be antisemitic!