After accusing the Liga Andifamación of trying to “do away” with his social network X, formerly known as Twitter, Elon Musk has threatened to sue the organization created in the United States to defend civil rights and fight against anti-Semitism and intolerance.
The owner of the social network X, formerly known as Twitter, said the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) was trying to take down his company, “falsely accusing her and me of being anti-Semitic.”
Since the acquisition, The @ADL has been trying to kill this platform by falsely accusing it & me of being anti-Semitic
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 4, 2023
In a series of posts to X, Musk said the company’s ad revenue was down 60%. “From what we’ve heard from advertisers, ADL appears to be responsible for most of our lost revenue,” he wrote.
The world’s richest man added that he would sue the group for defamation. “It seems we are left with no choice but to file a libel suit against the Anti-Defamation League… what an irony!” he wrote on X.
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
Musk recently sued the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH), another anti-hate speech body, for damaging the relationship between X and his advertisers. The CCDH has responded that it will resist the lawsuit and that it will continue to “put Twitter on the ropes.”
To be “super clear,” Musk added in his messages on Tuesday that he was in favor of free speech “but against any kind of anti-Semitism.”
The ADL describes itself as the world’s leading anti-hate speech organization and says its mission is to “end the defamation of the Jewish people and ensure that there is justice and fair treatment for all.”
According to the ADL, anti-Semitic messages registered a drastic increase in X after its acquisition by Musk, in October 2022, the re-entry of extremists and spreaders of conspiracy theories to the social network, and the harassment allowed against former members. of the dissolved board of trust and security of the platform.
According to a person with legal knowledge, even if state law allows Musk to pursue the defamation suit, it is unlikely that he will be successful. “Whether someone is anti-Semitic or not is fundamentally a matter of opinion, something that is protected by free speech,” said Jennifer Safstrom, a professor at Vanderbilt University Law School. “Elon’s threats of litigation appear to be an attempt to dissuade ADL from continuing to perpetuate a message it does not like,” she added.
X CEO Linda Yaccarino had said in August that the social network was a safer place since the Musk acquisition. “By all objective measures, X is now a much more sane and secure platform than it was a year ago,” she said.
Highly respected for her role as an executive in the television advertising business, Yaccarino’s first mission after being named director of X in May is to heal relationships with advertisers. Advertising accounted for 90% of X’s revenue in 2021, but the business was hit by questions about Musk’s leadership and the decision by several companies to pause their ads on the platform. Concerned about the new content policy, the automotive company Audi and the pharmaceutical company Pfizer are some of the companies that have boycotted X.
The social network has allowed the re-entry of users who had been banned, such as the influencers misogynist Andrew Tate, and has failed to relaunch a service for paying subscribers that generated a wave of imposter accounts.
An ADL spokesman said organization policy prevented him from commenting on legal challenges.
Translation by Francisco de Zarate
