Twitter/X owner Elon Musk threatened to sue the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) on Monday night, hours after accusing the civil rights organization of causing advertisers to flee his struggling platform.
“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,” Musk posted, “oh the irony!”
Musk has blamed the ADL and other groups for the exodus in advertisers that the platform formerly known as Twitter has experienced since Musk took charge last year. On Monday, he accused the ADL of “trying to kill this platform by falsely accusing it & me of being anti-Semitic,” adding that, “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!”
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Twitter sued the Center for Countering Digital Hate in July, accusing the nonprofit of trying to hurt Twitter’s advertising business. Musk recently amplified posts from a far-right “#BanTheADL” hashtag. Earlier on Monday, Musk suggested that the ADL (a Jewish civil liberties organization) is “ironically the biggest generators of anti-Semitism on this platform” because “they are so aggressive in their demands to ban social media accounts for even minor infractions.” Musk was replying to a Twitter user who has previously tweeted antisemitic cartoons.
In a statement to The Daily Beast, a spokesperson for the ADL said it was “unsurprised yet undeterred that antisemites, white supremacists, conspiracy theorists and other trolls have launched a coordinated attack on our organization.” The statement continued: “This type of thing is nothing new. This onslaught comes following our participation in the 60th Anniversary of the March on Washington, where ADL proudly marched shoulder-to-shoulder with African-American leaders and those from other minority communities.”
The spokesperson added Musk’s threats followed a meeting between the ADL and “the leadership of X;” a meeting that the ADL believes “clearly upset these hateful groups.”
“Such insidious efforts don’t daunt us. Instead, they drive us to be unflinching in our commitment to fight hate in all its forms and ensure the safety of Jewish communities and other marginalized groups.”
