During his appearance on the "All-In Podcast," Musk, who has been involved in an ongoing war of words with ADL, said that the international Jewish non-governmental organization slammed his decision to reinstate Trump's X account, characterizing the move as an example of hate speech.
"The ADL was instrumental in getting Donald Trump deplatformed. And then when we restored the account, they made it super clear that they regarded simply restoring his account… that constituted hate speech," the tech giant CEO disclosed. "He [Trump] hasn't even said anything! He has to at least say something, or post something, for there to be incremental hateful content — this is absurd! And what's this got to do with antisemitism? Donald Trump's son-in-law is Jewish, he has Jewish grandkids. I'm pretty sure he's not antisemitic, okay? I mean, he was at their wedding!"
The billionaire also revealed that ADL has been trying to kill the X by falsely accusing it and him of being anti-Semitic. "To be super clear, I'm pro-free speech, but against anti-Semitism of any kind," Musk posted in a separate tweet.
.@elonmusk: "ADL did initiate a boycott. They call it a pause, but a pause that is never ending is a boycott. We saw a massive drop in U.S. advertising. We saw basically no change in advertising in Asia...
This is despite repeated analysis, including third-party analysis of the… pic.twitter.com/Hq4qwZacYz
— KanekoaTheGreat (@KanekoaTheGreat) September 12, 2023
He is also going to file a lawsuit against the organization and will ask for roughly $22 billion in damages due to their advertiser boycotts. Musk added that U.S. advertising revenue is "still down 60 percent, primarily due to pressure on advertisers by ADL. That's what advertisers tell them, he claimed. (Related: THE IRONY: Elon Musk threatens to file defamation case against Anti-Defamation League for waging advertiser boycotts against X (Twitter).)
"We saw a massive drop in U.S. advertising. We saw basically no change in advertising in Asia, but domestically where the ADL is strong, we saw a 60 percent drop. So, you know, that's pretty intense," the Tesla founder also said. "The issue with the ADL is not a question of hate speech, it's not a question of antisemitism, obviously. It's that the ADL and a lot of other organizations have become activist organizations which are acting far beyond their stated mandate, or their original mandate, and I think far beyond what donors to those organizations think they are doing."
The left-leaning group received a massive backlash earlier this month. Critics have been calling for the #BantheADL move. Its head, who was former Barack Obama's aide Jonathan Greenblatt, denounced supporters of the hashtag, which included a number of prominent conservatives, as "white supremacists" and "hardened antisemites."
Meanwhile, ADL responded that as per policy, it does not comment on legal threats. But it noted that their officials recently met with X CEO Linda Yaccarino, who was hired by Musk to help regain advertising revenue. Yaccarino thanked ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt following the meeting last week, saying in a post on the site that: "A strong and productive partnership is built on good intentions and candor."
Musk's dad worries for his son's safety amid battle with ADL
Due to the recent developments, Musk's father, retired electromechanical engineer Errol Musk told the Sun that he fears his son could be in deep trouble for going up against ADL which is in direct collusion with powerful forces in the U.S. government.
The older Musk reacted to a recent New Yorker piece by journalist Ronan Farrow saying: "It's a hit job, a shadow government-sponsored opening salvo on Elon. The artillery-like softening up of the enemy before the actual attack and preparing of the ever-submissive people for the attack." He added that yes, he worries that the "shadow government will try to assassinate his firstborn son. Errol, who confirmed Elon and he shared the same fear, also previously warned his son to beef up his security.
The 52-year-old mogul has even previously joked that he could "die in mysterious circumstances.' The Musks' fear is not "unfounded" as the ADL was accused in the past of being involved in the Jewish Defense League's firebombing assassination of Alex Odeh at his office in Santa Ana, California. Odeh was a Palestinian-American who founded his own ADL-like group he called the Arab-American Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC), which is in direct contrast with the ADL's agenda.
Meanwhile, despite the gravity of the organization's interference in Musk's businesses, not a single congressman has come out to signify interest in probing or even just to criticize the incident. On the other hand, the Israeli government already professed all-out support to the pro-Israel lobbying group immediately after Musk exposed the organization.
Watch the interview with Musk at the "All-In Podcast" below.
Check out Censorship.news to read more news on speech suppression measures pushed on social media and tech giant firms.
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