The Simon Wiesenthal Center (SWC) on Wednesday issued a statement condemning Elon Musk for his failure to tackle antisemitism on X, formerly known as Twitter.
“From the moment that Elon Musk acquired Twitter, the Simon Wiesenthal Center, a trailblazer in combating Online Hate and Terrorism, asked to meet with him to detail our concerns about the leveraging of Twitter by anti-Semites and violent anti-Israel groups and individuals,” said SWC.
“Our efforts, and those of scores of other Jewish organizations focused on these issues, were met with virtual silence. The failure to adopt a robust policy in this area left the social media platform open to Kanye West’s relentless hateful rants against the Jewish people that impacted on tens of millions of users,” it added.
“Now, amidst surging anti-Semitic hate crimes in the US fueled by relentless Jew-hatred on social media, Musk chooses to threaten to launch a lawsuit, not against antisemites, but against the ADL,” continued SWC.
“Mr. Musk—this isn’t leadership, it’s a display of arrogance for which our community loses—whatever the outcome. The SWC reiterates its call for X to meet and begin the long overdue process of degrading, not upgrading, the use of X by antisemites and haters,” the statement concluded.
The statement follows Musk’s campaign against the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) which culminated in Musk threatening a defamation lawsuit against the organization.
Musk’s threat to file a defamation lawsuit against the ADL came several days after he suggested holding a poll on X asking users whether to ban the ADL from the platform.
The CEO of X had earlier “liked” the tweet launching the hashtag #BanTheADL by Keith Woods, an Irish white nationalist and self-described “raging antisemite.”
His reasoning for a lawsuit against ADL is that the organization is responsible for lost revenue since his acquisition of the social media platform.
On Tuesday, ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt responded for the first time to Musk’s threats, saying, “It is profoundly disturbing that Elon Musk spent the weekend engaging with a highly toxic antisemitic campaign on his platform — a campaign started by an unrepentant bigot that then was heavily promoted by individuals such as white supremacist Nick Fuentes, Christian nationalist Andrew Torba, conspiracy theorist Alex Jones and others.”
Greenblatt noted that the campaign “manifested in the real world when masked men marched in Florida on Saturday brazenly waving flags adorned with swastikas and chanting ‘Ban the ADL.’”
“But to be clear, the real issue is neither ADL nor the threat of a frivolous lawsuit. This urgent matter is the safety of the Jewish people in the face of increasing, intensifying antisemitism,” he continued.
The ADL CEO charged Musk with engaging with and elevating these antisemites at a time of unprecedented spikes in antisemitism targeting Jewish institutions and private residential communities.
“And so, this behavior is not just alarming nor reckless. It is flat out dangerous and deeply irresponsible. We need responsible leaders to lead, to stop inflaming hatred and to step back from the brink before it's too late,” Greenblatt added.