Musk sets clearer boundaries on antisemitism to halt abandonment of major advertisers from X

In the wake of a string of major companies, including Disney, Apple, Warner Bros., and IBM, declaring a suspension of advertising, X owner Elon Musk underscored in Posts shared on his personal account on Saturday that calls for the "decolonization" of Israel, the statement "From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free," and the use of "other laundered terms" are deemed as a call for violence. Consequently, these expressions will result in the suspension of users' X accounts.

“As I said earlier this week, ‘decolonization’, ‘from the river to the sea’ and similar euphemisms necessarily imply genocide. Clear calls for extreme violence are against our terms of service and will result in suspension”, Musk posted on his X account. “As for any fake advocacy groups who seek to suppress free speech, they should remember that karma is real”, he responded to a question from a user on the platform. To another member, Musk replied: “Anyone calling for a genocide of any people will be suspended.”

Elon Musk

Musk's statement not only comes against the backdrop of the advertising suspension, but also seemingly in support of an antisemitic conspiracy theory suggesting that Jews "hate" whites. "You have said the actual truth," Musk recently wrote in response to a post making this claim. He further fueled the controversy in another post, asserting that it is "super complicated" for white people to "be proud of their race." Musk also accused the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) of launching "unfair attacks against the majority of the West, even though the majority of the West supports Jews and Israel."

At the same time, Musk threatened on Saturday to sue media watchdog Media Matters and those who attacked his social media platform X, following moves by the U.S. companies to halt advertising on the platform after being promoted alongside antisemitic content. "The split second court opens on Monday, X Corp will be filing a thermonuclear lawsuit against Media Matters and all those who colluded in this fraudulent attack on our company," Musk wrote in a post on X.

"This week Media Matters for America posted a story that completely misrepresented the real experience on X, in another attempt to undermine freedom of speech and mislead advertisers," he said in a post. He accused Media Matters of creating an alternative account designed to "misinform advertisers" about their posts.

Media Matters said in response that Musk was a "bully" who threatens "meritless lawsuits". "Musk admitted the ads at issue ran alongside the pro-Nazi content we identified," Media Matters President Angelo Carusone said in a statement. "If he does sue us, we will win."

On Friday the White House condemned Musk's endorsement of what it called a "hideous" antisemitic conspiracy theory on X. The White House accused Musk of an "abhorrent promotion of antisemitic and racist hate" that "runs against our core values as Americans."

"It is unacceptable to repeat the hideous lie ... one month after the deadliest day for the Jewish people since the Holocaust," White House spokesperson Andrew Bates said, referring to the Oct. 7 attack by terrorist group Hamas on Israel. On that day hundreds of murderous terrorists from Hamas broke through the border from the Gaza Strip and carried out a heinous massacre of innocent Israeli civilians inside Israeli territory. In the brutal massacres, at least 1,400 Israelis were murdered - babies, children, women, and the elderly - adopting tactics reminiscent of ISIS.

Thousands more Israelis were injured and over 200 women, children, babies, old men, and soldiers were abducted by Hamas to the Gaza Strip, with the intent of using them as bargaining chips against Israel. In response, the IDF has been attacking and dismantling the terrorist infrastructure of the jihadist Hamas organization in Gaza in an attempt to collapse its hold on the Palestinian population in Gaza.