ADL fundraises off of Elon Musk's alleged 'antisemitism'

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) is sending letters to Jewish leaders asking for donations by claiming X, formerly known as Twitter, is the source of rising antisemitism at the hands of Elon Musk, who the organization referred to as an "unrepentant bigot."

This after Musk announced he was considering filing a defamation lawsuit against the ADL stating that the organization has been trying to destroy his platform by asserting erroneous claims that both he and X are "antisemitic." The ADL has been urging advertisers to pull their ads from X due to these claims, which prompted the response from Musk.

The letter, which was sent by ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt, told Jewish leaders that Musk is responsible for "boosting voices of extremism" and that those who oppose their far-left organization are "white supremacists, Christian nationalists, and conspiracy theorists."

"I am reaching out to share several alarming updates with you, and to ask you to take action against those who spread anti-Jewish hate. We will not falter. We will not be silenced. I went onto MSNBC this morning to discuss just how profoundly disturbing it is that Elon Musk spent the weekend engaging with a highly toxic, antisemitic campaign on his platform, X/Twitter - a campaign started by an unrepentant bigot that was then heavily promoted by white supremacists, Christian nationalists, conspiracy theorists and others," Greenblatt wrote.

After Elon Musk announced that he was considering his legal options against the "defamation" organization, which has ironically been charged with defaming people, "Ban the ADL" began to trend on X, which promoted the aggressive response from the ADL.

"We are deeply gratified that in reaction to the #BanTheADL campaign, many people have come to ADL's defense. Please consider making a donation to ADL now to sustain us as we keep doing the work each and every day to fulfill our mission and fight antisemitism no matter who stands in our way," Greenblatt continued.

"We believe that boosting voices of extremism as Musk has done is not just alarming; not just reckless. It is flat out dangerous and deeply irresponsible. We need responsible leaders to lead and to stop inflaming hatred," he added.

Elon Musk responded to the letter on X by writing, "This is crazy! Also, putting the 'Donate Now' button halfway through is such a desperate move trying to get people before they tune out."

 

On Wednesday, Greenblatt appeared on CNBC's Squawk Box and was confronted with reports that the ADL was urging advertisers to pull their ads from X.

Greenblatt said, "We are not out there publicly or privately talking to advertisers, they will make the decisions they want to."

"We did call for a pause back in November after the acquisition. And then since then, since that initial statement, what we are doing is engaging with the management of the company trying to help them make it better," Greenblatt said of X.

"I understand they have a big business problem. I mean, Elon tweeted something I didn't know, that the advertising revenues down 60 percent. But look, brands are big boys and girls, they will make their own decisions."

Greenblatt said that he "doesn’t believe in cancel culture," but rather "council culture."

Greenblatt was asked whether he thinks that Musk is antisemitic, to which he said, "I have never said Elon Musk is antisemitic… and I don’t think Twitter as a platform is antisemitic, and as we’ve said here, hate speech is the price of free speech."

"But," he said, "let's acknowledge that when Elon Musk and the platform bring people, hardened antisemites back on, when they validate their rantings, when they algorithmically amplify them and allow it to spread," Greenblatt has to deal with the "real world consequences."

After weighing his options on whether or not to file a suit against the ADL, Musk wrote on X that "if they lose the defamation suit, we will insist that they drop the 'anti' part of their name."

The ADL has posted articles on its website accusing then-Twitter of continuing "to host antisemitic threats and tropes."