Why Elon Musk, accused of antisemitism, is visiting Israel

Elon Musk is set to visit Israel next week. The richest man in the world’s trip to Israel comes amid a flurry of accusations of antisemitism. It also comes after advertisers on his social media website X pulled out in droves. The news comes just days after Musk announced that X would donate ‘all revenue from advertising & subscriptions associated with the war in Gaza to hospitals in Israel’.

X Corp will be donating all revenue from advertising & subscriptions associated with the war in Gaza to hospitals in Israel and the Red Cross/Crescent in Gaza

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 21, 2023

Let’s take a closer look at everything we know: As per Channel N12, Musk is set to undertake his visit to Israel next week.

The owner of X will visit towns attacked by Hamas on 7 October.

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Musk is set to meet Israel’s president Isaac Herzog as well as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Musk, who has been a lightning rod for the past few years, recently sparked outcry with a tweet responding to a user who accused Jews of hating white people and for professing a general indifference to antisemitism. The tweet

You have said the actual truth

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 15, 2023

“You have said the actual truth,” Musk replied on X. Musk later added:

You right that this does not extend to all Jewish communities, but it is also not just limited to ADL

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 15, 2023

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Musk, who inflamed tensions with his own posts endorsing an antisemitic conspiracy theory, also tweeted that he was “deeply offended by ADL’s messaging and any other groups who push de facto anti-white racism or anti-Asian racism or racism of any kind.” “The ADL unjustly attacks the majority of the West, despite the majority of the West supporting the Jewish people and Israel. This is because they cannot, by their own tenets, criticise the minority groups who are their primary threat,” Musk further tweeted. The post drew criticism from the White House, where spokesperson Andrew Bates said, “It is unacceptable to repeat the hideous lie behind the most fatal act of antisemitism in American history at any time, let alone one month after the deadliest day for the Jewish people since the Holocaust.”

That referred to Hamas’ deadly attack on Israel.

Then, the liberal advocacy group Media Matters reported that ads from Apple and Oracle also were placed next to antisemitic material on X. It said it also found ads from Amazon, NBA Mexico, NBCUniversal and others next to white nationalist hashtags. IBM, Disney and other major advertisers then pulled funding from X. This came as a major blow to the platform that has been trying to win back big brands and their ad dollars that constitute its main source of revenue. As per CBS News, adverstising on X declined 60 per cent in September and revenue has cratered.

Musk in July noted that X’s ad revenue had decreased by half.

The outlet quoted Simiilarweb as saying global web traffic on X declined by 14 per cent, while overall traffic decreased by almost 7 per cent. “IBM has zero tolerance for hate speech and discrimination and we have immediately suspended all advertising on X while we investigate this entirely unacceptable situation,” the company said in a statement. [caption id=“attachment_13395042” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] IBM, Disney and other major advertisers then pulled funding from X – a major for the platform that has been trying to win back big brands and their ad dollars that constitute its main source of revenue.[/caption] Advertisers have also been fleeing the social media platform X over concerns about their ads showing up next to pro-Nazi content and hate speech on the site in general. Musk has labelled Media Matters “an evil organisation.” He responded to the reports accusing him of antisemitism as “bogus.”

This past week, there were hundreds of bogus media stories claiming that I am antisemitic.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

I wish only the best for humanity and a prosperous and exciting future for all.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 19, 2023

The head of the Anti-Defamation League also hit back at Musk’s tweets. At a time when antisemitism is exploding in America and surging around the world, it is indisputably dangerous to use one’s influence to validate and promote antisemitic theories," ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt said on X. As per BBC, Musk has also filed a lawsuit accusing Media Matters of attempting to destroy the platform. “Media Matters knowingly and maliciously manufactured side-by-side images depicting advertisers’ posts on X Corp’s social media platform beside Neo-Nazi and white-nationalist fringe content and then portrayed these manufactured images as if they were what typical X users experience on the platform,” the complaint filed in Texas says. “Media Matters designed both these images and its resulting media strategy to drive advertisers from the platform and destroy X Corp.’ Media Matters in turn has called Musk a ‘bully’. “Far from the free speech advocate he claims to be, Musk is a bully who threatens meritless lawsuits in an attempt to silence reporting that he even confirmed is accurate,” Media Matters president Angelo Carusone said as per BBC. Meanwhile, X CEO Linda Yaccarino said X’s “point of view has always been very clear that discrimination by everyone should STOP across the board.” “I think that’s something we can and should all agree on,” she tweeted. Yaccarino, a former NBCUniversal executive, was hired by Musk to rebuild ties with advertisers who fled after he took over, concerned that his easing of content restrictions was allowing hateful and toxic speech to flourish and that would harm their brands. “When it comes to this platform — X has also been extremely clear about our efforts to combat antisemitism and discrimination. There’s no place for it anywhere in the world — it’s ugly and wrong. Full stop,” Yaccarino said.

Axios reported that Yaccarino is being urged to leave the company.

Musk “doesn’t share our values,” an industry leader told Axios. “He has proven to the advertising community that he is not someone you can do business with.” Musk’s woes aren’t limited to X either. His comments have caused shares of Tesla to sink– causing the company to lose billions of dollars in market value. Wedbush analyst Dan Ives told CBS MoneyWatch the furore has disturbed and upset Tesla investors. “It was a dark day for Musk and Tesla with this X post heard around the world," Ives wrote in an email. “[L]ongtime shareholders are asking what is next? We see no changes to Musk leadership, but this is a black eye that will not be forgotten by many.” Musk now seems to be in damage control mode. He last week announced that those who use “decolonisation” and “from the river to the sea” – terms he claimed – terms he claimed “necessarily imply genocide” would be thrown off the platform. “Clear calls for extreme violence are against our terms of service and will result in suspension,” Musk wrote on X. Greenblatt later praised Musk for “fighting hate.” EU puts social media ads on hold, TikTok faces trouble The European Commission, meanwhile, said it’s putting all its social media ad efforts on hold because of an “alarming increase in disinformation and hate speech” on platforms in recent weeks. The commission, the 27-nation EU’s executive arm, said it is advising its services to “refrain from advertising at this stage on social media platforms where such content is present,” adding that the freeze doesn’t affect its official accounts on X. The EU has taken a tough stance with new rules to clean up social media platforms, and last month it made a formal request to X for information about its handling of hate speech, misinformation and violent terrorist content related to the Israel-Hamas war.

X isn’t alone in dealing with problematic content since the conflict.

TikTok was forced removed the hashtag #lettertoamerica after users on the app posted sympathetic videos about Osama bin Laden’s 2002 letter justifying the terrorist attacks against Americans on 9/11 and criticizing US support for Israel. The Guardian news outlet, which published the transcript of the letter that was being shared, took it down and replaced it with a statement that directed readers to a news article from 2002 that it said provided more context. The videos garnered widespread attention among X users critical of TikTok, which is owned by Beijing-based ByteDance. TikTok said the letter was not a trend on its platform and blamed an X post by journalist Yashar Ali and media coverage for drawing more engagement to the hashtag. The short-form video app has faced criticism from Republicans and others who say the platform has been failing to protect Jewish users from harassment and pushing pro-Palestinian content to viewers. TikTok has aggressively pushed back, saying it’s been taking down antisemitic content and doesn’t manipulate its algorithm to take sides. With inputs from agencies