Big things are happening on TSMSFKA Twitter (The Social Media Site Formerly Known As Twitter), to the point that Musk has now threatened to sue the Anti-Defamation League. The ADL’s primary, original mission is good, calling out and countering antisemitism, but in recent years they have strayed from that course into being more of a general leftist organization and, allegedly. into censorship.
This led to a clash between Musk and the ADL, which started to come out into the open in this conversation:
To be super clear, I’m pro free speech, but against anti-Semitism of any kind
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 4, 2023
Since the acquisition, The @ADL has been trying to kill this platform by falsely accusing it & me of being anti-Semitic
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 4, 2023
Our US advertising revenue is still down 60%, primarily due to pressure on advertisers by @ADL (that’s what advertisers tell us), so they almost succeeded in killing X/Twitter!
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 4, 2023
That eventually led to this announcement:
To clear our platform’s name on the matter of anti-Semitism, it looks like we have no choice but to file a defamation lawsuit against the Anti-Defamation League … oh the irony!
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 4, 2023
As if that isn’t enough, it seems that there might be a ‘Twitter Files’ style dump (although we guess it will be called ‘X Files’ because now Twitter is X?). That discussion started here:
ADL has pushed hard for us to shut down accounts like Chaya’s, even though it has nothing to do with anti-Semitism, which is their supposed charter!
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 4, 2023
Libs of TikTock responded:
Dear Elon,
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) September 4, 2023
Please consider releasing all communications and providing full transparency on the ADL & all other organizations who have pushed to censor certain accounts on Twitter/X.
Sincerely,
Thousands of users who have been suspended, throttled, silenced, and shadowbanned. pic.twitter.com/ZcvoBSvR84
Which resulted in this:
Thank you, Elon! Please let me know if you would like LoTT to help release some of the data 👏
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) September 4, 2023
BREAKING: Elon suggests he will release all the data relating to the ADL and other organizations pushing to censor and silence X accounts 👀
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) September 4, 2023
We need a full list of which organizations pushed for censorship and which accounts were affected!
THINGS ARE ABOUT TO GET WILD pic.twitter.com/SdHmWf9A7T
That’s for sure.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 4, 2023
Might take until next week, as we’re short-staffed this week.
Will it be just the ADL or other organizations as well?
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) September 4, 2023
We don’t see an answer to her question yet.
COMING SOON…. 👀 #TheADLFiles
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) September 4, 2023
LFG🔥
There’s not enough popcorn in the world for that.
We are not sure about Musk’s prospects for success in a defamation lawsuit. He will probably have to prove actual malice which in this context means he would not only have to prove the allegations false (and we don't know which allegations they will singe out), but that the ADL members knew it was false, or they had a reckless disregard for the truth or falsity of the allegations. That is a steep hill to climb, but it is not impossible: For instance, Johnny Depp beat Amber Turd Heard on exactly that legal standard. Still, we tend to think just releasing the data would be more effective. It certainly will have more of an impact in the short term.
Still, there was much rejoicing over the announcement of a suit:
Wouldn’t be the first time the Defamation League would be found to have defamed people 🤣 pic.twitter.com/s5gLhL2V8v
— ALX 🇺🇸 (@alx) September 4, 2023
Interesting.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 4, 2023
In our case, they would potentially be on the hook for destroying half the value of the company, so roughly $22 billion.
Based on what we’ve heard from advertisers, ADL seems to be responsible for most of our revenue loss.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 4, 2023
Giving them maximum benefit of the doubt, I don’t see any scenario where they’re responsible for less than 10% of the value destruction, so ~$4 billion.
Document discovery of…
Unfortunately, these guys have long history for not being that honest. pic.twitter.com/Kc9MEvZoOK
— I Meme Therefore I Am 🇺🇸 (@ImMeme0) September 5, 2023
Of course, there always has to be that guy:
The world’s richest man has taken possession of a global social media platform used by the world’s journalists, scientists, governments, private citizens, businesses, religions, militaries and health/emergency services to share all vital information—It’s going as you might expect
— Luke Zaleski (@ZaleskiLuke) September 4, 2023
*rolls eyes*
Legacy media articles are about to drop about how suing the ADL is antisemitic. https://t.co/TJCpjdXa2s
— Salty Cracker (@SaltyCracker9) September 4, 2023
The @ADL's persecution of @X is DISGUSTING.
— Joseph D. McBride, Esq. (@McBrideLawNYC) September 4, 2023
The sole purpose of Fanatical Orgs like the @ADL, @splcenter & the @ACLU is to slander & defame any person or organization that threatens their agenda.@elonmusk, if your team needs aggressive outspoken warriors, you know who to call! https://t.co/AymR5adudj
Breaking: Billionaire Bully and Anti-Woke Owner of the Social Media Platform Twitter Threatens to Sue Anti-Defamation League Because Twitter's Ad Sales Slump.
— Anonymous (@YourAnonNews) September 5, 2023
Note: Nazi accounts, racist accounts, and antisemitic accounts that were once suspended were restored on Twitter. Ad… https://t.co/6dVxZAQHJU
The whole post says:
Note: Nazi accounts, racist accounts, and antisemitic accounts that were once suspended were restored on Twitter. Ad companies left the platform - but Elon, being Elon doesn't understand that there has been a massive spike in hate speech since his purchase of Twitter because he's become a champion of the far right. Elon states that he's a free speech absolutist and has given racists nearly free reign since taking control of this platform.
No one said billionaires were the smartest people.
Elon, fix your Nazi problem - how could you have Nazi'n that coming?
Freedom of speech is stupid is a hell of a take, bud … but you do you.
Amazing. He’s doubling down. He’s going full Trump - say outrageous things and then throw around frivolous lawsuits. https://t.co/s0Xa6MkbsN
— Mehdi Hasan (@mehdirhasan) September 4, 2023
Except we don’t recall him saying anything ugly or outrageous about Jews.
Have fun in discovery, moron. Ask your lawyers what - in legal terms - Oscar Wilde taught them https://t.co/z9xbr0GVGZ
— Keith Olbermann⌚️ (@KeithOlbermann) September 4, 2023
He is one of several voices who thinks Musk will have a hard time with discovery, but that seems to be nothing but an expression of prejudice. After all, they have no idea what discover will show, so it is nothing more than pre-judging the matter: Judging the matter before they had all relevant information.
Maybe they don’t like Musk because he is an African American?
Elon Musk has made it clear that X is a place for anti-Semitism and hate. Musk is vile. He needs to be deported https://t.co/bU3irStomA
— (((DeanObeidallah))) (@DeanObeidallah) September 5, 2023
Dean claims to be a lawyer. Lawyers are required to pass Constitutional Law.
The similar organization SPLC had to pay millions of dollars in damages in a US lawsuit a few years ago on similar grounds. So there is a chance that the ADL is going to lose here. And Twitter being a big company, the damages could be _much_ higher.https://t.co/XHiGm3ztmE https://t.co/AEvGTLDvQz
— Peter Todd/mempoolfullrbf=1 (@peterktodd) September 5, 2023
The free speech absolutist strikes again. https://t.co/xScXkgvSL9
— Andrew Coyne 🇺🇦 (@acoyne) September 5, 2023
That is another common attack. But what Musk has said is that he supports free speech as far as the law allows. Defamation suits have been allowed in the law since before this country was its own republic. This author isn’t a fan of them, but this is pretty ordinary within even the systems with the most robust protections for freedom of expression.
This will either bankrupt the ADL or at the very least cause them to play on the defense against the world's richest man.
— Middle American Patriot (@PatriotMiddle) September 4, 2023
It all started with a hashtag. Never let a clown on Telegram tell you that internet activism is useless. https://t.co/5hHSDZy4NI
Whatever disagreements I have with the ADL on this or that thing, this Elon post is just idiotic. There are legit neo-Nazis on this platform who even troll the Auschwitz Memorial site with Holocaust denier garbage...and don't get removed when reported. https://t.co/QeWNvvBT20
— Aaron Astor (@AstorAaron) September 5, 2023
They shouldn’t be removed. The way to combat bigotry isn’t to silence the bigot. It is to engage with that person and answer any reasonable questions. Of course, some won’t listen, but reasonable people will and antisemites will remain marginalized. But no free person should be afraid of discourse.
Imagine thinking you’re going to clear your platform of antisemitism allegations by claiming the Jews are the reason your business is tanking?
— Jordyn (@JordynTilchen) September 4, 2023
Idiocy. https://t.co/43THCXedW6
Imagine thinking that the ADL represented all Jews.
Seriously, this is precisely how you get people saying ‘the Jews killed Christ.’ This author’s faith holds that a group of people including some Romans and some Jews killed his savior about two millennia ago. But the average, modern Jew (or Roman/Italian) has zero responsibility for that, because guilt isn’t collective or inherited. Indeed, the action itself was not collective.
And the ADL likewise doesn’t represent all Jews, so whether they are good or bad, it falls on their members regardless of their religion, not all Jews. Morally, the credit or blame is individual. There was no election among all Jews (in America or globally) that made the ADL their spokespersons and the fact that they have attacked Jews, like Chaya Raichik (who runs Libs of TikTok) shows that they can’t plausibly be claimed to speak for all jews. So to pretend that Musk is attacking all Jews isn’t antisemitic, but it shows an inappropriate collectivity in one’s thinking that can easily lead to bigotry.
In any case, it might be a few weeks before we start to see any document dump on the ADL, but stay tuned here for it. And maybe order some extra popcorn.
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