The White House accuses Elon Musk of “abject promotion” of anti-Semitism on his social network

The White House accused, Friday, November 17, Elon Musk of having made a “abject promotion of anti-Semitic and racist hatred” in one of his publications on his social network X, formerly Twitter.

The billionaire responded Wednesday to the owner of an account, who wrote that Jewish people encourage “hatred against white people”, by this message: “You told the exact truth.” For the White House, the publication merely repeats a conspiracy theory popular among white nationalists, according to which Jews have a secret plan to encourage illegal immigration to Western countries in order to undermine the white majority there.

Notable increase in misinformation

This conspiracy theory was notably taken up by the author of the attack in a Pittsburgh synagogue in 2018, which left 11 dead. “It is unacceptable to repeat the heinous lie that led to the deadliest act of anti-Semitism in American history.”said Andrew Bates, a White House spokesperson, in reference to this attack.

After his first response, Elon Musk continued by affirming that the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), an association fighting against anti-Semitism, “unfairly attacks a majority of the West, despite the fact that the majority of the West supports Jewish people and Israel.” “This is because they cannot, according to their own principles, criticize the minority groups who represent the main threat” towards Jewish people, he added.

The ADL is one of the NGOs denouncing a notable increase in disinformation and homophobic and racist insults on X, since the moderation rules changed there with the arrival of Elon Musk. The owner of Tesla and SpaceX had already attacked the ADL at the beginning of September, ensuring that the group was “responsible for most of the loss of income” of X.