Tesla CEO Elon Musk has a fireside discussion with British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak (not pictured) about the risks of artificial intelligence on Thursday, November 2, 2023 in London, England.
Tolga Akmen | Bloomberg | Getty Images
The White House on Friday accused Elon Musk of promoting “anti-Semitism and racist hatred.” tesla The CEO and owner of Company X said he agreed with a social media post accusing the “Jewish community” of spreading “hatred against white people.”
musk, respond X wrote that the post “states the actual truth.”
“It is unacceptable at any time to repeat the abhorrent lies behind the most deadly act of anti-Semitism in American history,” White House Press Secretary Andrew Bates said in a statement.
Mr. Bates seems to be referring to this mass murder In 2018, 11 people were shot and killed at Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life Synagogue by a gunman who expressed anti-Semitic beliefs.white genocide“Conspiracy theory.
“We condemn in the strongest terms this abhorrent act that promotes anti-Semitism and racist hatred. It goes against our core values as Americans,” Bates said.
A White House statement noted the proximity of Musk’s post to the deadly Oct. 7 attack in Israel by Hamas, describing that day as “the deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust.” did.
“We all have a responsibility to unite against hate and to speak out against those who attack the dignity of our fellow Americans and undermine the safety of our communities,” Bates said. said.
Spokespeople for Tesla and X did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment on the White House statement.
Musk on Wednesday responded to a post claiming that the Jewish community is “pushing the very kind of dialectical hatred against white people that we say we want people to stop using against us.” did.
Musk, who has the most popular account on X, responded, “You told the truth.”
The original post, from an account with fewer than 5,000 followers, has been viewed more than 1.1 million times since being amplified by Musk, who is followed by more than 163 million accounts.
Musk in the same X thread criticized He claims that the Anti-Defamation League, a Jewish nonprofit advocacy group, and others promote “de facto anti-white racism, anti-Asian racism, or racism of any kind.” .
In another post, he argued that the ADL is “unfairly attacking the majority of Western countries” because it fails to criticize “minorities who are the main threat.”
ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt responded to Musk’s post with an Testing and promoting anti-Semitic theories is undoubtedly dangerous.”
Musk, the world’s richest man, previously threatened to sue ADL for defamation, claiming the organization was “trying to destroy this platform and me by falsely accusing it and me of being anti-Semitic.” Was.
Wednesday’s exchange is not the first time Musk has been accused of inciting an anti-Semitic conspiracy.
in 2018 Tweet On the platform formerly known as Twitter, he wrote, “Who do you think *owns* news organizations? Hello.” After the tweet spurred accusations of anti-Semitism, Musk hid another post in the thread and “decontextualized it” to make it clear that he was only referring to “people in power.” He blamed a “malfunction” on Twitter that caused the tweet to be deleted.
In 2022, he tweeted a meme comparing Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to Adolf Hitler, but later deleted it. backlash.
When he bought Twitter, he reinstated users he had previously banned from the platform, including neo-Nazi website publisher Andrew Anglin.
Musk bought Twitter last year for $44 billion. Several studies have shown that engagement on the site has declined during that time, but Musk disputes that traffic is declining.But Musk acknowledged that U.S. advertising revenue is declining. Significantly.
As Musk’s recent controversy over anti-Semitism continues to swirl, some companies are distancing themselves from him and his platform. IBM announced this week that it had suspended advertising on X after reports that its ads were found to be running next to anti-Semitic content.
Musk is also the founder of SpaceX, a NASA contractor. The spacecraft maker will attempt to relaunch Starship on Saturday, which is part of its contract with NASA.
