Elon Musk’s fanaticism has been on full display this week, and as Daily Kos’ Hunter wrote on Friday, the billionaire, who bought Twitter last year and renamed it X, is facing some serious consequences.
Of course, Musk’s hateful views aren’t limited to his personal posts. They are integrated into how he runs his social media platforms. A ” Musk doubled down on his threat on Saturday, she says. Media outlets whose performance led to a mass exodus of advertisers.
And that outlet, Media Matters, is retaliating.
Related story: Elon Musk has turned Twitter into a den of right-wing propaganda
First, a little background, courtesy of Hunter.
Musk endorsed a post that blamed “Jewish communities” for promoting “dialectical hatred against white people.” It also mentions the white supremacist conspiracy theory that the “Western Jewish population” is behind the “flooding” of countries with “a multitude of minorities”.
Musk responded publicly, “You told the real truth.”
[…]
x [has become] Home to neo-Nazi extremism where advertisements from Apple, IBM and other major companies often run alongside posts praising Adolf Hitler and Nazism and advocating Holocaust denial.
IBM was the first to respond to Media Matters for America’s evidence that the Fortune 500 company’s ads were being laced with pro-Nazi content. In a statement, IBM said it had “immediately suspended all advertising on X while we investigate this completely unacceptable situation.”
As CNN reported Friday evening, IBM was the first, but not the last.
A series of major brands halted their advertising on .
The high-profile advertiser revolt includes some of the world’s largest media companies, such as Disney, Paramount, NBCUniversal, Comcast, Lionsgate and CNN’s parent company Warner Bros. Discovery.
X also reportedly lost out to Apple, according to multiple news outlets, including Axios, which first reported Apple’s withdrawal.
What should a giant social media platform do in the face of all this? Ban Nazis, you might be thinking.
No.
A spokesperson for
But there is more. On Saturday morning, Musk went to Ax to threaten Media Matters and told his eight-dollar army to “stand with Ax.” He also vowed that X Corp would “file a thermonuclear lawsuit against Media Matters.” He posted it along with a screenshot of a short manifesto, accusing Media Matters of manipulating the platform to achieve a desired outcome: pro-Nazi ads shown next to major brands.
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The divided second court will open on Monday, X Corp will file a thermonuclear lawsuit against Media Matters and all those involved in this fraudulent attack on our company. pic.twitter.com/55vl7PspaQ
– Elon Musk (@elonmusk) 18 November 2023
In response to Musk’s massive criticism, Media Matters’ Angelo Carusone offered a brief, if sharp, response.
Far from claiming to be an advocate of free speech, Musk is a bully who threatens meritless lawsuits in an effort to silence a report he even confirmed was accurate. Musk acknowledged that the ads we identified were running with pro-Nazi content. If he sues us we will win.
Notably, this isn’t the first time Musk has been itchy over X being called out as a Nazi-friendly platform. He previously vowed to go after the Anti-Defamation League, whose research as of May shows there has been much more hate on the platform since Musk took over… and new policies, such as “free speech, Not access,” has allowed it. Be live.
Musk was angry about the ADL report in May, and he was angry this fall, too. Via Daily Kos’ Mark Sumner, in September:
Elon Musk released a series of statements in which he attributed the destruction of the X platform to covert manipulation by a Jewish organization, once called Twitter. Saying that anti-defamation was the “primary” cause of the decline in advertising revenue on League X, Musk first threatened, then later promised, to sue for damages.
This is correct. After several months in which Musk has endorsed racist comments; encouraged hate speech; advanced literal Nazi propaganda; Every Twitter employee in Brazil was fired on suspicion of being overly generous; The entire company press office and the entire company communications department were laid off; Destroyed the team responsible for content moderation; Advertisers frightened by lawlessness, irresponsibility and ever-increasing racism; And by changing the name of an entire platform for a personal whim and destroying global brand identity, Musk has put his finger on the real issue.
These are Jews.
Back on X on Saturday, Musk’s acolytes predictably defended their billionaire messiah, taking a jibe at media matters And Carusone. And thanks to X’s policies, the people in the basement will likely be doing so all weekend.
Source: www.dailykos.com
