Elon Musk on 5th September threatened to file a defamation lawsuit against the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) for accusing him and his social media platform X of anti-semitism. He also accused the ADL of allegedly pressuring US advertisers to boycott the platform thereby declining its US ad revenue.
Musk claims that X’s (formerly Twitter) US ad revenue is down 60 per cent and that the company has lost roughly $22 billion, which is half its value. Musk had purchased Twitter for $44 billion in October last year.
The entire saga began with the hashtag “BanTheADL” trending on X over the last weekend (3rd September to be precise), which saw an indirect participation by Elon Musk. X user and far-right commentator Eva Vlaardingerbroek wrote, “The fact that #BanTheADL is trending shows how done people are with the “we’re labeling everything we don’t like as hateful/racist/dangerous/far-right” BS. People aren’t afraid of your intimidation tactics anymore, @JGreenblattADL. Your labels have lost their power.”
Sharing the above post, Musk asked users if a poll should be run to determine if the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) should be banned on X.
Many free speech activists came out in support of Elon Musk’s proposal and hinted how the tables had turned as they shared a thread by ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt who in November 2022 asked if it was time for Twitter to go. Greenblatt’s tweets came merely two months after Musk took over the social media giant.
Moreover, Musk also responded to a post by far-right Youtuber Keith Woods, who has been actively seeking a ban on ADL on X. He wrote that the ADL is the biggest generator of anti-semitism on X. “The ADL, because they are so aggressive in their demands to ban social media accounts for even minor infractions, are ironically the biggest generators of anti-Semitism on this platform!”
This came days after Musk had liked two subsequent tweets by Woods arguing for #BanTheADL. Keith Woods has reportedly identified himself as a “raging antisemite”. Musk’s likes for Woods posts and further response to #BanTheADL campaigners are being deemed as an endorsement of antisemitism by left-liberals.
Hours later, the X owner posted on the platform on Tuesday (5th September) that he is against anti-semitism of any kind. He said, “I am pro-speech, but against anti-Semitism of any kind.” When asked by a user as to who was questioning this, Musk replied by saying that the ADL has been trying to kill the social media platform X. He wrote, “Since the acquisition, The @ADL has been trying to kill this platform by falsely accusing it & me of being anti-Semitic”.
A few hours later, he tweeted, “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!” Even as Musk and X were accused of antisemitism during the course of #BanTheADL trend, some of his tweets pointing to the underlying problems with the left-leaning ADL were underreported.
Replying to an X user, Musk said that “the ADL has done a lot of good work in prior decades, but has been overzealous in recent years & hijacked by woke mind virus.” When criticised by an X user for “pushing the #BanTheADL campaign”, Musk replied saying that the ADL will not be banned from X.
In an apparent display of his ardent support for free speech, Musk wrote, “Despite the immense harm ADL has done to X/Twitter, they still will not be banned in this platform, unless they break the law.”
On 31st July, the Tesla Motors CEO filed a lawsuit against the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH), a so-called non-government organisation that often partners with ADL. The CCDH, which also claims to be working to stop the spread of online hate, was sued for running “a scare campaign to drive away advertisers from the X platform”. Soon after, UK-based anti-semitic organisation Stop Funding Hate (SFH) huddled together a bunch of tweets targeting “free speech absolutists”.
Similarly, after Musk announced filing a lawsuit against ADL, SFH came out in support of the footmen of George Soros. Stop Funding Hate had run a sinister campaign against OpIndia in the past targeting our ad revenues, similar to the case of ADL allegedly targeting X’s ad revenues.
The link between George Soros and his apologists and their conspiracy to target ad revenues of any entity that takes a non-leftist line
ADL, which is being sued by Musk, has rather done more activism for George Soros than against anti-semitism. In fact, in ADL’s dictionary, any criticism of Soros qualifies as anti-semitism. Soros is a Hungarian-American billionaire who has declared his intentions to “fight nationalists” and funds several NGOs working to malign India, particularly Hindus.
On 16th May, Elon Musk tweeted that Soros reminds him of Magneto, a villain who is a Holocaust survivor in the X-Men series. Soros too is a Holocaust survivor. Further to his tweet, Musk added, “You assume they are good intentions. They are not. He wants to erode the very fabric of civilization. Soros hates humanity.”
ADL chief Jonathan Greenblatt was quick to jump to Soros’ defence saying that the latter is often blamed by the far-right using anti-semitic tropes as the source of the world’s problems.
He wrote, “Soros often is held up by the far-right, using antisemitic tropes, as the source of the world’s problems. To see @ElonMusk, regardless of his intent, feed this segment — comparing him to a Jewish supervillain, claiming Soros “hates humanity” — is not just distressing, it’s dangerous: it will embolden extremists who already contrive anti-Jewish conspiracies and have tried to attack Soros and Jewish communities as a result.”
In fact, the Leftist ADL has penned an entire article dedicated to how Soros, a “philanthropist”, is an innocent victim of conservative and right-wing conspiracy theories who object to his funding of “liberal causes”.
A big part of these fundings, it must be pointed out, fuels anti-India narratives through NGOs to target Indian businesses and to manipulate public perception against the Modi government by inciteful interference in India’s internal affairs.
When, on 8th February 2020, OpIndia published a report on George Soros and his ill-intended propaganda machinery running in India, Stop Funding Hate – much like ADL – took particular offence and began a tirade against us to target our ad revenues.
Stop Funding Hate often cites so-called research reports published by the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH). Several CCDH reports largely refer to reports published by ADL or are published in partnership between the two Leftist organisations.
ADL has a history of coming to the rescue of Soros’ facade of a public image. In 2019, the ADL hit out at former US President Donald Trump’s attorney Rudy Giuliani for asserting that far-left propagandist George Soros is “hardly a jew”. “Soros is hardly a Jew. I am more of a Jew than Soros is,” Guiliani had reportedly said.
To this ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt responded by saying, “For decades, George Soros’ philanthropy has been used as fodder for outsized anti-Semitic conspiracy theories insisting there exists Jewish control and manipulation of countries and global events. Mr. Giuliani should apologize and retract his comments immediately unless he seeks to dog whistle to hardcore anti-Semites and white supremacists who believe this garbage.”
Is there also an Omidyar Network link to the leftist campaign against X?
A report by Front Page Magazine suggests so. While taking on Elon Musk for not addressing the larger problem, Daniel Greenfield, a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center, pointed out that there are currently 60 organisations running the #StopToxicTwitter coalition campaign against X and Musk.
Greenfield in his report has criticised Musk in sharp words for targeting only one of the 60 organisations lobbying against X, that is ADL, and “almost “allying with an antisemite to conduct a smear campaign blaming Jews for a boycott backed by money from an Iranian billionaire.”
As per the report, ADL received a $250,000 seed grant from the Omidyar Network to “build a state-of-the-art command centre in Silicon Valley to combat the growing threat posed by hate online”. This is the same Omidyar Network whose promoters were named by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in the FCRA funding scam.
The report also brings to light the $100 million fund pledged by Pierre Omidyar in the name of combating “fake news” and supporting investigative journalism. Another report by The Washington Free Beacon alleged that the left-wing billionaire donated $509,500 to Accountable Tech and $2 million to at least six other organisations targeting Musk.
Greenfield writes, “Musk ought to know who Omidyar is because he became quite rich in part because of him, eBay bought PayPal, and then was behind the boycott against him” adding that “If Musk really wants to fight back against the boycott, he can take on Omidyar.”
Omidyar Network is known for funding many publications across India. While the name of Omidyar Network has cropped up in the FCRA bribery scandal, the organisation has several other questionable antecedents.
In September 2021, the Ministry of Home Affairs put the Omidyar Network under the FCRA watchlist. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had sent an internal note to all the banks directing them to put a specific number of foreign organizations, including Omidyar Network, in the PRC list (Prior Reference Category) under the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act 2010.
Back in 2019, it came to light that the Omidyar Group was one of the donors to Forbidden Stories (FS), a dubious organisation launched with the underlying aim of effectuating regime changes and installing pliant governments in countries across the world that align with the left-liberal ideology and reinforce the primacy of the Left’s narrative.
While the strategic plan and its animosity towards nationalism made its ideological orientations abundantly clear, it is important to note that the Omidyar Group funded a host of media organisations worldwide, mostly leftist globalist portals such as Scroll.in.
The left was put off after Elon Musk restored previously banned accounts following the acquisition of X
Before Musk acquired X (then Twitter), the social media platform saw severe censorship of non-left and anti-left views and views which criticised Islamists. The “Twitter Files” story was initially broken by independent journalist Matt Taibbi exposing how the Twitter moderation team justified the censorship of the Hunter Biden story, under the guise of the “hacked materials policy,” by the likes of Vijaya Gadde.
The second part of the “Twitter Files” gave a glimpse into the high-handedness of a “select few” employees at the social media platform, who routinely censored right-wing accounts and non-mainstream narratives with complete disregard for Twitter’s rules.
In complete violation of its own mission, Twitter became a hotbed of censorship through the creation of blacklists, arbitrary prevention of tweets from trending on the platform and deliberate reduction of visibility of trending topics and accounts.
Prominent far-right US journalist Tucker Carlson was among the many Twitter (now X) users who were axed from the platform. The former Fox News anchor’s account was suspended in March 2022 for allegedly defending “hateful” comments about a transgender woman posted on Twitter.
ADL CEO Greenblatt has been quite vocal about his dislike for Carlson, who too has targeted Greenblatt extensively during his Fox News days. Greenblatt has called on Musk to ban Carlson from the platform. Musk, of course, reinstated Carlson after the acquisition. This is to say that Musk has been restoring dissenting voices on X in what can be deemed as a display of free speech.
Similarly, several such accounts have been salvaged by Musk. These accounts now identify themselves as such and actively support the business magnate. As for Tucker Carlson, Musk has said that he is welcome to join the lawsuit against ADL.
Musk also accused the ADL of pushing hard for X to shut down accounts like “that of”Libs of TikTok” run by Chaya Raichik, a Jew. The account was suspended six times in 2022 alone and blocked for a week each time for alleged “hateful conduct”. Musk wrote on X, “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!”
Has campaign coverage against Elon Musk and X been amplified in order to salvage Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook’s public image which was brought down by the very coterie?
A similar campaign was launched against Facebook in 2020 which led to ad revenue losses amounting to $7.2 billion after a big chunk of advertisers boycotted the platform. A whopping $56 billion was eliminated from the social media platform’s market value pushing down Zuckerberg’s net worth to $82.3 billion. More than 1,000 advertisers had reportedly pulled out of Facebook.
The boycott campaign #StopHateForProfit included ADL and partner organisations including Free Press, Colour of Change, and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). Of the 100 advertisers that spent the most on Facebook, nine companies announced a pullback in paid advertising. This reportedly cut their spending from $26.2 million to a mere $507,500.
Digging deeper into the ad boycott campaigns, Musk shared a report from March 2020 which talks about the impact of the campaign on Facebook. He shared the report with the caption, “The Facebook caved to far-left pressure groups and now allows them to silently dictate policy in exchange for ad money.”
Musk’s fanbase on X has also called out the US media for underreporting the similar allegations that persist against Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg. Twitter user ALX @alx pointed to a report by The Washington Post which talks about how “under Elon Musk, Twitter has allowed Russian propaganda against Ukraine to reach more people”.
The user points out that even as the report mentions Meta too, the headline is only about Musk and Twitter (now X). To this, Musk replied, “It’s almost like they have an axe to grind”.
X user and author Ashley St. Clair pointed out that The Washington Post has not reported on the alleged “rampant child exploitation on Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta platforms”.
She further wrote, “Mark Zuckerberg has ignored Florida Attorney General’s request for him to speak to the Statewide Council on Human Trafficking regarding Meta platforms being used most frequently to “assist, facilitate or support human trafficking.”
These observations raise suspicion as to whether Zuckerberg has been spared, although partially it seems, from the smear campaign by the leftist coterie for catering to their divisive demands.
Whether free speech is good or bad can still be debated. But the “hate speech” hatemongers are certainly dangerous and deserve such lawsuits to expose them
The #BanTheADL campaign began trending on X following a meeting on 29th August between X CEO Linda Yaccarino and ADL President Jonathan Greenblatt. Greenblatt said after the meeting that ADL will be vigilant and give Yaccarino and Musk credit if the service gets better and reserve the right to call them out until it does. The highhandedness of a group running #StopToxicTwitter campaign cannot be more apparent than this response.
Greenblatt wrote, “I had a very frank + productive conversation with @LindayaX yesterday about @X, what works and what doesn’t, and where it needs to go to address hate effectively on the platform. I appreciated her reaching out and I’m hopeful the service will improve. @ADL will be vigilant and give her and @ElonMusk credit if the service gets better… and reserve the right to call them out until it does.”
Musk has said that while it would be nice to see the lost US advertising return, the social media platform no longer needs to restore US advertising on prior levels for survival. According to account X News Daily, the platform has been seeing significant revenue from non-US advertisers, API fees, and verification subscriptions.
And considering that he has ruled out the possibility of a ban unless an X account breaks the law, it is only natural that the Left will continue to hound Musk for the want of their controlled version of free speech.
Following a request by the “Libs of TikTok” account, Musk has hinted that a data dump will be released of all communication on ADL and other organisations pushing to censor free speech on X. He wrote in another post, “Document discovery of all communications between the ADL and advertisers will tell the full story.” The data dump is expected in the next few weeks.
Rest assured, the X owner has left the audiences in anticipation of an exposé that is most likely to open another can of worms.