Musk Clashes With Anti-Defamation League
As time winds down to the one year anniversary of Elon Musk’s (he/him) acquisition of X- formerly Twitter- Elon Musk’s struggles to keep control over the $44b social media app, have become more apparent.
Because Musk made the company X private, therefore removing it from the stock market; the exact market value of X is unknown. However, A post from Musk on September 4, 2023, implies there has been a large loss in value- directing blame at The Anti-Defamation League. Musk posted “our US advertising revenue is still down 60%, primarily due to pressure on advertisers by @ADL [The Anti-Defamation League].” Previously, The ADL issued complaints about X being a platform that fosters and encourages bigoted and anti-semitic viewpoints. Musk noted that “if this continues, we will have no choice but to file a defamation lawsuit against, ironically, the ‘Anti-Defamation’ League.” ADL leadership and X CEO Linda Yaccarino (she/her) seek to work things over in conversation. Meanwhile, Musk has began publicly supporting various posts that contained the hashtag #BanTheADL.
This isn’t the first time Musk has brought legal action against an organization of the same ilk as the ADL. A month prior, in August, Musk sued the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH), accusing them of the previously mentioned dive in revenue. Although Musk is not responsible for the words or actions of the individual users of X, on a sitewide basis, his acquisition has enabled and encouraged the promotion of a more conservative base than the site had under former CEO Jack Dorsey (he/him). Musk denies the acquisition paved the way for bigotry to thrive on the platform, but after the purchase, and particularly after infamously firing around half of the former staff, many of whom worked in content moderation, many publications noted a precipitous rise in usages of bigoted slurs on the site.
In the face of the accusations of antisemitism, Musk is meeting, in the near future, with Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu (he/him) to discuss artificial intelligence. The date of this meeting has not yet been confirmed.
