Elon Musk claimed on Monday that the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) were the “biggest generators” of antisemitism on his X platform (formerly known as Twitter).
The tech giant CEO previously suggested on Saturday that he would poll users on banning the ADL, an organization known for combating extremism and antisemitism, online and offline.
“The ADL, because they are so aggressive in their demands to ban social media accounts for even minor infractions, are ironically the biggest generators of antisemitism on this platform!” Musk claimed on Monday.
The hashtag #BanTheADL surfaced on the platform among white supremacists and other far-right supporters. The Tesla boss himself liked and commented on a tweet from Keith Woods, a far-right Irish activist who describes himself as a “rabid antisemite.” Following the calls for the ADL’s X account to be banned, Musk suggested a poll be used.
Woods’ tweet came a day after ADL director Jonathan Greenblatt spoke with X CEO Linda Yaccarino about social network users spreading hate on the platform. ADL has seen a massive increase in racist, antisemitic and homophobic content since Musk’s acquisition of Twitter last year and the reinstatement of extremist accounts.
“The ADL is neither surprised nor disheartened that antisemites, white supremacists, conspiracy theorists and others have launched a coordinated attack against our organization,” the organization told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, after the hashtag was launched against it.
In the responses to Musk’s request for a poll, the X boss wrote that ADL had been “hijacked by woke mind virus.” Though the organization had “done a lot of good work in prior decades.”
In May, the ADL had singled out Musk for using antisemitic tropes about Jewish billionaire George Soros, likening the 93-year-old Holocaust survivor to the super villain Magneto.
