In case you missed it, Elon Musk’s antisemitism came under a glaring spotlight this week when, in the middle of Israel’s war with Gaza and antisemitism on a disturbing rise, he tweeted his explicit agreement and approval of blatant antisemitism as “absolute truth.” Since then, several large advertisers have fled X (Musk’s new name for Twitter), at least partly because Media Matters revealed their ads appeared next to exactly the kind of rhetoric Musk spews, welcomes and helps monetize: “His company has also financially rewarded extremists, including apparently paying $3,000 to a pro-Hitler and Holocaust denial account through X’s ad revenue sharing program. (Even after criticism, X has not suspended that openly antisemitic account, which has nearly 100,000 followers.),“ Media Matters reported Friday.
Musk’s response? He wants to use his huge wealth to punish, silence and suppress discussion and reporting. He tweeted early Saturday morning, “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.” With no sense of irony or his own hypocrisy, Musk’s tweet also included a call to “Stand with X to protect free speech.”
The Daily Beast noted that the tweet whined that “Many of the largest advertisers are the greatest oppressors of your right to free speech,” while also advertising a paid, ad-free version of X.
By the way, Elon Musk may have forgotten that in July, he said, “I’ll say what I want to say and if the consequences of that is losing money, so be it.” But we haven’t.
Meanwhile, Media Matters does not sound worried:
Nor should it:
