During a face-to-face meeting in California on Monday, Israel’s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, called upon Elon Musk to address the troubling rise of antisemitism on Musk’s social media platform, X.
The meeting, initially intended to discuss technology and artificial intelligence, swiftly shifted its focus to concerns regarding free speech and the proliferation of antisemitic content since Musk took control of the platform in October 2022. The Anti-Defamation League (ADL), a prominent Jewish civil-rights organization, has held Musk accountable for permitting the dissemination of such offensive material. Jonathan Greenblatt, the ADL’s director, has accused Musk of “amplifying” the messages of neo-Nazis and white supremacists who seek to silence the league.
Musk, while declaring himself “pro-free speech but against antisemitism of any kind” on X, has retaliated with a defamation lawsuit against the ADL, alleging that the group has endeavored to undermine the platform by unjustly branding it and him as antisemitic. He has also claimed that the ADL’s actions led to a substantial 60% decline in X’s revenue.
Notably, Musk has frequently used his platform to target George Soros, the Hungarian-American businessman and philanthropist, and his organization, a common subject of conspiracy theories. Under Netanyahu’s leadership, the Israeli government has aligned itself with Musk’s criticism of Soros, asserting that criticizing Soros, who has supported organizations deemed hostile to the Jewish people and the state of Israel, is not antisemitism but rather the opposite.
In response to Netanyahu’s expressed concerns about antisemitism on X, Musk acknowledged the platform’s vast daily volume of 100 million to 200 million posts, conceding that “some of those are gonna be bad.” He then reiterated X’s policy of not promoting or amplifying hate speech.
Since Musk assumed control of the social media platform, he has adopted a more lenient approach to content moderation, shifting towards limiting the visibility of objectionable posts rather than their outright removal. Musk describes this approach as “freedom of speech, not freedom of reach.”
Netanyahu, while acknowledging the complexity of the matter, urged Musk to strike a balance, emphasizing the challenges inherent in addressing this issue effectively.
