White House condemns Elon Musk’s ‘abhorrent’ promotion of antisemitism

Spokesperson for the White House said it was “unacceptable” for Elon Musk to promote the “hideous lie”

The White House has condemned tech billionaire Elon Musk for promoting an antisemitic conspiracy theory on the social media platform he owns calling it “unacceptable” and “abhorrent”.

Earlier this week, Mr Musk endorsed a post on X that falsely asserted that Jewish people “have been pushing the exact kind of dialectical hatred against whites that they claim to want people to stop using against them”.

The post appeared to be adjacent to a far-right antisemitic conspiracy theory known as the “great replacement” which suggests minorities are replacing white Europeans.

Mr Musk immediately faced backlash for endorsing the post which was made as Jewish people are facing an increasing amount of hostility due to the Israel-Hamas conflict which began on 7 October.

“It is unacceptable to repeat the hideous lie behind the most fatal act of Antisemitism in American history at any time, let alone one month after the deadliest day for the Jewish people since the Holocaust,” Andrew Bates, a spokesperson for the White House, said in a statement

“We condemn this abhorrent promotion of Antisemitic and racist hate in the strongest terms,” Mr Bates added.

He added that Americans have a responsibility and obligation to speak out against hateful attacks.

Elon Musk reacts during an in-conversation event with Britain's Prime Minister Rishi Sunak in London, Thursday, Nov. 2, 2023 (AP)

The Independent reached out to X for comment. The social media platform responded, “Busy now, check back later” in an email.

Mr Musk’s recent promotion of antisemitic content is the latest in a history of the Tesla and SpaceX CEO tolerating and promoting antisemitic speech on his platform.

Last year, he reinstated the accounts of several controversial people who previously made antisemitic comments. In May, he compared Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to Adolf Hitler in a meme but then deleted it after the Auschwitz Museum scolded him.

Then in September, Mr Musk threatened to sue the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), an organisation that describes itself as the “leading anti-hate organisation in the world”, for flagging a rise in antisemitic on X which led to lost revenue from advertisers. He claimed he and the platform were not antisemitic.

The ADL previously reported attacks on Jewish people and communities were on the rise on social media, including X.

Linda Yaccarino, the CEO of X, said in a statement on Thursday that “X’s point of view has always been very clear that discrimination by everyone should STOP across the board -- I think that’s something we can and should all agree on.

“When it comes to this platform -- X has also been extremely clear about our efforts to combat antisemitism and discrimination. There’s no place for it anywhere in the world -- it’s ugly and wrong. Full stop.”