In an apparently unprompted tweet Monday, Elon Musk blamed the Anti-Defamation League for costing X, the social networking site formerly known as Twitter, $22 billion. One of the tweets, all of which came "seemingly out of the blue" according to NBC News, read, "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!" In response to a comment on that tweet claiming the ADL has formerly been fined for defamation, Musk, replied, "In our case, they would potentially be on the hook for destroying half the value of the company, so roughly $22 billion." The organization is doing so, he says, by claiming Musk and/or X is antisemitic.
In response to another tweet, he later explained, "Our 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!" If the ADL continues to accuse him or his platform of antisemitism, Musk said, "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 …" He said he would not ban the ADL from the platform unless it breaks the law, and called for it to reveal its "demands" for the social network explicitly. He also suggested he might release communications between the ADL and X in which the organization called for censorship and banning accounts. "To be super clear, I'm pro free speech, but against anti-Semitism of any kind," he added.
Per Axios, the ADL wouldn't comment on the threatened lawsuit, but did comment on the call by some critics to ban it from X. "ADL is unsurprised yet undeterred that antisemites, white supremacists, conspiracy theorists and other trolls have launched a coordinated attack on our organization. This type of thing is nothing new," a spokesperson says. "This onslaught comes following our participation in the 60th Anniversary of the March on Washington, where ADL proudly marched shoulder-to-shoulder with African American leaders and those from other minority communities. It also follows a meeting with the leadership of X ... that clearly upset these hateful groups. Such insidious efforts don't daunt us. Instead, they drive us to be unflinching in our commitment to fight hate in all its forms and ensure the safety of Jewish communities and other marginalized groups." (More Elon Musk stories.)
,
uBlock 
,
and
Ghostery 
)
