Key Points
- The White House has criticised Elon Musk for repeating a racist premise.
- Elon Musk endorsed comments on the platform on Wednesday.
- Major advertisers including Apple, Disney and IBM have paused campaign’s on the social media platform.
The White House has accused Elon Musk of repeating a “hideous” antisemitic lie on his social media site X, formerly known as Twitter, this week, stating it “runs against our core values as Americans.”
The statement follows decisions by Apple and IBM to pull their advertising dollars from X after watchdog Media Matters found ads were placed alongside content promoting Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party.
Responding to Musk’s post on Wednesday, the White House condemned what it called an “abhorrent promotion of antisemitic and racist hate”.
On Friday, representatives for Musk and X declined to comment in relation to the post.
However, on Thursday X CEO Linda Yaccarino said the platform was actively combatting antisemitisim.
“X has also been extremely clear about our efforts to combat antisemitism and discrimination. There’s no place for it anywhere in the world – it’s ugly and wrong. Full stop,” Yaccarino said.
What did Elon Musk tweet?
Must endorsed a post on X on Wednesday that falsely claimed Jewish people were stoking hatred against white people.
He said the user who referenced the “Great Replacement” conspiracy theory was speaking “the actual truth”.
The theory suggests that Jewish people and leftists are engineering the ethnic and cultural replacement of caucasian Americans with non-white immigrants which will lead to a “white genocide.”
White House spokersperson Andrew Bates said it was “unacceptable” to repeat the racist premise.
“It is unacceptable to repeat the hideous lie … one month after the deadliest day for the Jewish people since the Holocaust,” Bates said.
He was referring to 7 October Hamas’ militant attack on Israel, which killed 1,200 people and dragged 240 hostages into the Gaza Strip.
More than 12,000 Palestinians, have been killed in
on Gaza, according to the health ministry in Hamas-controlled Gaza.
The significant escalation is the latest boiling point in a long-standing conflict between Israel and Hamas.
Apple and other major companies pull ads from X
A growing list of major companies has suspended its advertising on X over concerns of antisemitism on the platform.
Information technology company IBM was the first to pull the plug on Thursday, after its ads appeared next to tweets promoting antisemitism, according to a report by Media Matters.
“IBM has zero tolerance for hate speech and discrimination and we have immediately suspended all advertising on X while we investigate this entirely unacceptable situation,” the company said in a statement.
The platform’s largest advertiser Apple suspended their ads alongside Disney and Lions Gate Entertainment.
Advertisers have fled the site since Musk bought it in October 2022 and reduced content moderation, resulting in a sharp rise in hate speech on X, civil rights groups have said.
Antisemitism has been on the rise in recent years in the United States and worldwide.
Following the outbreak of war between terrorist organisation Hamas and Israel, antisemitic incidents have risen by nearly 400 per cent in the United States, according to the Anti-Defamation League, a nonprofit that fights antisemitism.
Musk, chief executive of electric vehicle maker Tesla and founder of rocket company SpaceX, has blamed the Anti-Defamation League for the ongoing drop in advertisers without offering any evidence.
