The White House accused Elon Musk on Friday November 17 of having made a “abject promotion of anti-Semitic and racist hatred” in one of his publications on his social network, “hatred against white people”in stating: “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. This conspiracy theory was notably taken up by the author of the attack in a Pittsburgh synagogue in 2018, which left eleven people dead.
“It is unacceptable to repeat the heinous lie that led to the deadliest act of anti-Semitism in American history.”declared in a press release Andrew Batesa White House spokesperson, in reference to this attack. “We condemn in the strongest terms this abhorrent promotion of anti-Semitic and racist hatred, which goes against our fundamental values as Americans”he added, recalling that the Americans had “the obligation to report anyone who violates the dignity of their fellow Americans and compromises the security of our communities”.
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 the Jews, 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, or even SpaceX, had already attacked the ADL at the beginning of September, claiming that the group was “responsible for most of the loss of income” of X.