On Monday, Elon Musk sent out several tweets detailing the rocky relationship between the social media platform and the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), mentioning the potential of legal action against the group if the issues between the two persist.
It all began on the app after the CEO of the ADL, Jonathan Greenblatt, met with X CEO Linda Yaccarino to discuss “hate” on the platform, per the DC Enquirer. The tweet immediately drew the ire of many who were well aware that the “hate” that Greenblatt speaks of is just any idea that deviates from the ADL’s political views, causing the hashtag #BanTheADL to begin trending on X.
https://twitter.com/JGreenblattADL/status/1696908233317769427
Some users on the app began to label the movement as anti-Semitic, calling for action from X. Musk responded Monday afternoon, writing, “To be super clear, I’m pro free speech, but against anti-Semitism of any kind.”
https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1698750300474016250
The tech billionaire then replied to numerous people replying to his message, with one user asking who was pushing the idea that the platform was anti-Semitic. "Since the acquisition, The @ADL has been trying to kill this platform by falsely accusing it & me of being anti-Semitic,” Musk responded.
https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1698754179148214495
He added that the platform's “US advertising revenue is still down 60%, primarily due to pressure on advertisers by @ADL (that’s what advertisers tell us), so they almost succeeded in killing X/Twitter!”
https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1698755938541330907
A user then asked whether or not Musk would be taking any action against the organization for damaging the company’s ability to garner advertisers, to which Musk responded, writing, “If this continues, we will have no choice but to file a defamation suit against, ironically, the “Anti-Defamation” League. If they lose the defamation suit, we will insist that they drop the the “anti” part of their name, since obviously.”
https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1698757795259060562
He later reiterated the potential of a lawsuit, tweeting, “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!”
https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1698828606598734225?s=46&t=Uk-iV8T4Fopmz7DEfERB7A
In various follow-up responses, Musk further detailed the potential suit, saying that in their case, the ADL “would potentially be on the hook for destroying half the value of the company, so roughly $22 billion.” He further clarified that the understanding that the ADL is largely responsible for the advertiser loss comes directly from the advertisers, but even if they had minimal effect, the lawsuit would be in the billions.
https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1698834460131651883
“Advertisers avoid controversy, so all that is needed for ADL to crush our US & European ad revenue is to make unfounded accusations,” the tech mogul added. “They have much less power in Asia, so our ad revenue there is still strong. This ‘controversy’ causes advertisers to ‘pause’, but that pause is permanent until ADL gives the green light, which they will not do without us agreeing to secretly suspend or shadowban any account they don’t like. That is the relationship they’ve had with X/Twitter for many years. Presumably, they have that with all western search or social media orgs.”
https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1698841219999142053
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