Anti-Defamation League (ADL) CEO Jonathan Greenblatt fired back at Elon Musk over the tech billionaire’s accusations that the organization has been “trying to kill” X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.
“I can’t really tell you what’s in his head,” Greenblatt said during an interview with CNN Primetime host Abby Phillip. “I’ve read the same tweets that you have.”
“There is a problem across all social media services,” he said. “We’ve talked about it before, I’ve talked about it on this network, I’ve talked about it with Elon Musk. … But what’s alarming is the rise of antisemitism across the country. We’ve got to see the big picture here. Literally, anti-Jewish acts have reached historic levels in the United States. The highest number we’ve seen in 40-some-odd years of tracking it.”
Musk, who is the owner of X, has threatened to sue the ADL “[t]o clear our platform’s name on the matter of anti-Semitism.” In a series of posts on Monday, Musk said the hate-speech watchdog “has been trying to kill this platform by falsely accusing it & me of being anti-Semitic.”
He stressed that he is “pro free speech, but against anti-Semitism of any kind,” and suggested that the ADL’s comments were to blame for a downturn in advertising revenue.
“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!” he wrote.
Greenblatt, who expressed support for the First Amendment, pointed out that “a lot of notorious antisemites” have been re-platformed since Musk purchased the social media site last year.
“I think hate speech, speech we don’t like, that’s the price of free speech,” he said during the CNN interview. “But the question is, are you elevating it? Are you expanding it? Are you making it easy to see for children and other people? Are you finding ways to de-amplify it and tamp it down?”
Musk’s latest comments, his “frivolous lawsuit,” and his interaction with controversial figures such as white supremacist Nick Fuentes have only served to bolster “bad actors with very hateful intent,” Greenblatt said.
#BanTheADL began circulating on X after Musk’s posts, while The Hill reports that on Saturday a group of masked men in Florida marched through the streets waving swastika flags and chanting “Ban the ADL.”
An ADL spokesperson told The Hill that the organization “is unsurprised yet undeterred that antisemites, white supremacists, conspiracy theorists, and other trolls have launched a coordinated attack on our organization.”
Nicole Wells ✉
Nicole Wells, a Newsmax general assignment reporter covers news, politics, and culture. She is a National Newspaper Association award-winning journalist.
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