Elon Musk insists he’s not antisemitic after sharing antisemitic put up

Elon Musk has insisted he isn’t antisemitic after coming underneath hearth for calling an antisemitic conspiracy concept the “precise fact” and as a slew of main companies pulled promoting funding from X over the proliferation of pro-Nazi content material.

Mr Musk sparked outrage on social media final week, with many accusing the tech mogul of antisemitism.

In a put up on X on Sunday, Mr Musk responded to the accusations, claiming that “nothing could possibly be farther from the reality”.

“This previous week, there have been a whole bunch of bogus media tales claiming that I’m antisemitic. Nothing could possibly be farther from the reality,” he wrote.

“I want solely the most effective for humanity and a affluent and thrilling future for all.”

The saga started when a social media consumer appeared to push the “nice substitute” conspiracy concept on X, claiming that Jewish communities “have been pushing the precise form of dialectical hatred towards whites that they declare to need individuals to cease utilizing towards them”.

“I’m deeply disinterested in giving the tiniest s*** now about western Jewish populations coming to the disturbing realization that these hordes of minorities that assist flooding their nation don’t precisely like them an excessive amount of. You need fact mentioned to your face, there it’s,” the put up added.

Mr Musk replied to the put up, writing on his X platform: “You could have mentioned the precise fact.”

The preliminary put up got here in response to a marketing campaign video posted on X by the Basis to Fight Anti-Semitism. Within the video, a father is seen calling his son out over the hateful rhetoric the son has spewed on-line.

Mr Musk’s response acquired reward from white nationalist Nick Fuentes – whereas prompting widespread backlash from dozens extra on-line.

CNN’s Jake Tapper was among the many first to sentence the tech mogul, accusing him of “pushing unvarnished antisemitism at a time of rising antisemitism and violence towards Jews”.

The White Home then additionally weighed in, accusing Musk of enabling the “abhorrent promotion of antisemitic and racist hate”.

The antisemitism row continued when, later within the week, a sequence of main corporations – together with Disney, Apple and IBM – mentioned they’d pull promoting from X after adverts for the businesses appeared alongside pro-Nazi posts.

On Thursday, Media Issues, a left-leaning non-profit group, revealed a report that mentioned it had discovered adverts from massive manufacturers together with IBM, Apple, Oracle and Bravo working subsequent to pro-Hitler and antisemitic content material.

It’s unclear how this occurred but it surely got here after Mr Musk relaxed moderation insurance policies on X and minimize many employees concerned with security on the platform when his $44bn acquisition closed final 12 months.

An X spokesperson advised The Unbiased the corporate didn’t deliberately place the adverts subsequent to the posts from the antisemitic accounts, which have now been demonetised, that means promoting can now not run on their profiles.

In response to the promoting boycott, Mr Musk threatened to file a “thermonuclear lawsuit towards Media Issues and all those that colluded on this fraudulent assault on our firm”.

The scandal comes as X CEO Linda Yaccarino and different employees have reportedly been scrambling to place out the fires being lit by Mr Musk following a rising variety of accusations that the billionaire has promoted antisemitism, in accordance with The New York Occasions.

The outlet reported that it has seen messages from X gross sales workers asking what they need to say to their purchasers, who’ve been elevating issues about each Mr Musk’s current remarks and promoting exhibiting up subsequent to antisemitic posts.

This isn’t the primary time the enterprise magnate has been accused of being linked to content material that promotes antisemitism.

Within the days after the 7 October Hamas terror assault on Israel, Mr Musk was pressured to delete a put up the place he amplified an account extensively accused of antisemitism and of selling debunked movies as dependable sources of details about the assault.

In the meantime, final 12 months, advocacy organisation the American Jewish Committee referred to as on Mr Musk to apologise over a controversial put up that made a satirical comparability between Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Adolf Hitler.

Mr Musk has beforehand insisted that he’s “professional free speech” however towards antisemitism “of any form”.

In September, he threatened to sue the Anti-Defamation League – a century-old NGO that describes itself because the “main anti-hate organisation on the earth” – after the organisation accused him of antisemitism.