“No Choice”: Musk Threatens Suit Against ADL; Blames Activists For “Most Of X’s Revenue Loss”

Elon Musk, owner of the platform X, formerly known as Twitter, has threatened to ban the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) from his platform, adding that he had “no choice” but to file a defamation lawsuit against the advocacy group, which previously called for a pause on ad spending on the social network.

To clear our platform’s name on the matter of anti-Semitism, it looks like we have no choice but to file a defamation lawsuit against the Anti-Defamation League … oh the irony!

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 4, 2023

The group alleges Mr Musk has failed to clamp down on hate speech on the social media platform since his takeover last year, allowing disinformation to proliferate – something Mr Musk strongly denies. 

Since the acquisition, The @ADL has been trying to kill this platform by falsely accusing it & me of being anti-Semitic

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 4, 2023

Further, it was revealed that the ADL has put pressure on X to deplatform popular anti-woke account Libs of TikTok, which is run by a conservative Jewish woman, Chaya Raichik.

Dear Elon,

Please consider releasing all communications and providing full transparency on the ADL & all other organizations who have pushed to censor certain accounts on Twitter/X.

Sincerely,

Thousands of users who have been suspended, throttled, silenced, and shadowbanned. pic.twitter.com/ZcvoBSvR84

— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) September 4, 2023

A #BanTheADL began circulating on the social media platform after a meeting last Thursday between ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt and X’s new CEO Linda Yaccarino.

“I had a very frank + productive conversation with @LindayaX yesterday about @X, what works and what doesn’t, and where it needs to go to address hate effectively on the platform. I appreciated her reaching out and I’m hopeful the service will improve. @ADL will be vigilant,” Greenblatt posted after the meeting.

The hashtag was condemned by Israel’s foreign ministry. Additionally, as MEE reports, while this recent campaign has been amplified by so-called ‘far-right’ social media accounts (translation: non-mainstream-narrative-spewers), progressive organizations and Palestinian activists have for years raised concerns about the ADL and its efforts to undermine social justice movements in the US.

News of the potential lawsuit comes after news broke that X is still down around 60% in US ad revenue as the ADL continues to put pressure on its advertisers to avoid the social media platform.

“I don’t see any scenario where they’re responsible for less than 10pc of the value destruction, so [around] $4bn.”

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!

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 4, 2023

In November, the pressure group Stop Hate for Profit, which includes the ADL, called on advertisers “to pause their spending globally” and claimed “hate speech and disinformation have proliferated” on the app since Mr Musk’s takeover.

Advertisers avoid controversy, so all that is needed for ADL to crush our US & European ad revenue is to make unfounded accusations. They have much less power in Asia, so our ad revenue there is still strong.

This “controversy” causes advertisers to “pause”, but that pause is…

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 4, 2023

It wouldn’t be the first time the ADL was sued for defamation…

Interesting.

In our case, they would potentially be on the hook for destroying half the value of the company, so roughly $22 billion.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 4, 2023

Musk also shared an article questioning the ADL’s bias.

Interesting article https://t.co/zwdB7FRZzX

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 5, 2023

Musk also suggested that X will expose – Twitter-Files-esque – the ADL’s requests to ban and censor X accounts it deems anti-Semitic next week, prompting a hashtag for #TheADLFiles…

“A giant data dump would clear the air.”

BREAKING: Elon suggests he will release all the data relating to the ADL and other organizations pushing to censor and silence X accounts 👀

We need a full list of which organizations pushed for censorship and which accounts were affected!

THINGS ARE ABOUT TO GET WILD pic.twitter.com/SdHmWf9A7T

— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) September 4, 2023

Musk made it very clear where he stands…

To be super clear, I’m pro free speech, but against anti-Semitism of any kind

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 4, 2023

…and does no one remember what he told David Faber about his attitude to ‘being able to say what he likes’.

And finally, here is ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt in 2016 sounding an awful lot like Elon Musk on free speech advocacy…

Wow! As recently as 2016 Jonathan Greenblatt sounded like @elonmusk on free speech.

He claimed his only concern was violent threats, but as soon as the ADL got an in to the big tech companies they disregarded free speech and began pushing the most extreme censorship.#BanTheADL pic.twitter.com/Eyb2sVutmi

— Keith Woods (@KeithWoodsYT) September 4, 2023

…now what happened in 2016 that would have prompted him to abandon these morals in favor the most extreme censorship?