X (ex-Twitter): Elon Musk threatens to sue an organization fighting anti-Semitism

clash Billionaire accuses Anti-Defamation League of holding advertisers hostage by falsely claiming Twitter/X tolerates anti-Semitism

Elon Musk seeks to stop the hemorrhage of advertisers on X (Twitter)-< em class="credit">AFP

The controversies continue. Elon Musk, the boss of Tesla and to sue the Anti-Defamation League (ADL, which fights anti-Semitism and racism), which it accuses of criminal defamation. against his social network. And above all to be the main reason behind the collapse of the network's advertising revenues – down 50% – by scaring advertisers by asserting, wrong according to Musk, that the platform allows anti-Semitism to flourish.

“In order to clear the name of our platform regarding anti-Semitism, it appears we have no choice but to sue the Anti-Defamation League for defamation… Oh what an irony!», wrote the media boss in a message posted on Twitter. Monday evening on X.

Fall in advertising revenue

“According to feedback from advertisers, the ADL seems to be responsible for the majority of our loss of revenue”, affirms the billionaire, who continues: “Advertisers avoid the controversy, so all the ADL needs to wipe out our advertising revenue in the United States and Europe is make unfounded accusations.

“This 'controversy' causes advertisers to take a 'pause,' but this pause is permanent until the end of the year. “If the ADL gives the green light, it won't do without us agreeing to secretly suspend or ban any account they don't like,” he accuses.

Massive layoffs and lax moderation

Since he bought back Twitter at the end of October, the boss of Tesla upset the platform, with massive layoffs – there remain 1,500 employees out of 8,000 previously – until the very recent name change. His controversial approach to content moderation and chaotic launches of new products, such as paid user authentication, have caused advertisers to flee en masse.

Elon Musk notably ended the fight against disinformation on Covid and decided to an amnesty for many accounts previously banned cause of repeated violations of the rules against disinformation or harassment.

Tens of thousands of users have returned, notably far-right or anti-vaccine conspiracists. According to several NGOs, the number of homophobic and racist insults has risen again. arrow. A message “Fuck the jews” of the ex-youtuber and provocateur Leafy, who has more than 900,000 followers, remained online 72 hours and has been approved viewed 2 million times. Many Internet users have reported the message, but an automatic message told them that it was wrong. that it was not violating its charter.

This is not the first time that the X platform has attacked an NGO. At the beginning of August, she assigned brought before the American federal courts an organization fighting against the dissemination of hateful content online, the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH), accusing it of leading an unjustified smear campaign. against the social network.