Far-right megalomaniac and maker of exploding cars Elon Musk is all for freedom of speech, except when it's critical of him and of his "X" social media site becoming a sewer of hate speech after he bought it. His encouragement of right-wing racist and anti-Semitic messages has grown more open and provocative, with his latest target being the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), one of the leaders in the fight against anti-Semitism and racial hatred. From the Jerusalem Post:
"Elon Musk is engaging with white nationalists and antisemites who want to ban the Anti-Defamation League from Twitter, the influential social media platform he now calls 'X.'
Musk on Saturday asked his followers whether he should poll the platform about a hashtag, #BanTheADL, embraced in recent days by white nationalists and others on the far right.
Musk had earlier 'liked' the tweet launching the hashtag by Keith Woods, an Irish white nationalist and self-described 'raging antisemite.'
'The ADL’s favourite tactic is financially blackmailing social media companies into removing free speech on their platforms,' Woods said in his Aug. 31 tweet. 'Why should they have a platform on X to hold @elonmusk to ransom? It’s time to #BanTheADL.'
Musk liked two subsequent tweets by Woods, who touted Musk’s support to his followers. The hashtag was widely embraced on twitter by the far right, including by Andrew Torba, a Christian nationalist who refuses to speak with Jewish reporters and who founded Gab, a social media site, as a redoubt for the far right after Twitter started banning extremists. The shooter who killed 11 Jews at prayer in a Pittsburgh synagogue in 2018 broadcast hours plans on Gab before the attack." (our emphasis)
ADL's CEO Jonathan Greenblatt discussed X's permissive position toward hate speech with X CEO Linda Yaccarino, and received positive feedback from her, only to have Musk intervene one day later and raise the issue of banning ADL from the social media site. No one had expectation that Yaccarino held real power with a control freak owner like Musk, but that was a quick smack down of his new CEO and demonstration that he'll take the site lower into the sewer because he can.
(photo: Bloomberg Finance LP)
