SAN FRANCISCO — Tech billionaire Elon Musk confronted a 3rd day of backlash Friday from Jewish leaders, the White Home and media advertisers together with Disney and Apple after he embraced an antisemitic conspiracy idea earlier within the week, the most recent in a sample of his echoing anti-Jewish bigotry going again years. 

Musk sparked the criticism with six phrases he posted Wednesday afternoon on X, the social media app he bought a yr in the past. Responding to a different consumer who had accused Jews of hating white individuals and who had expressed indifference to antisemitism, Musk wrote: “You’ve stated the precise fact.” 

Musk, the CEO of the automaker Tesla and the rocket firm SpaceX, adopted up his first tweet with criticism of the Anti-Defamation League, or ADL, a company based by Jews to oppose antisemitism. Musk has been feuding with the ADL for months over its efforts to scale back extremism on social media, a marketing campaign that Musk says has value X advert gross sales. 

On Thursday morning, Jonathan Greenblatt, the ADL’s CEO, stated Musk was performing dangerously. 

“At a time when antisemitism is exploding in America and surging world wide, it’s indisputably harmful to make use of one’s affect to validate and promote antisemitic theories,” he wrote on X, with a screenshot of Musk’s six-word tweet. 

The White Home added its condemnation Friday because the backlash continued, saying that Musk had promoted “antisemitic and racist hate” towards “our core values as People.”

Accounts with histories of espousing anti-Jewish views celebrated Musk’s tweet as welcome information and as affirmation that he agrees with them “on the JQ,” brief for “Jewish query,” a time period utilized by antisemites for many years. 

“That is old-timey antisemitism with new lingo,” stated A.J. Bauer, an assistant professor of journalism who research right-wing actions and media on the College of Alabama.

Musk introduced a content material coverage Friday that the ADL welcomed, saying that X would droop accounts that use the phrase “from the river to the ocean.” The phrase is widespread amongst many Palestinians, whereas many Jews say the phrase means the eradication of Israel.

However in any other case, Musk was defiant about his feedback earlier within the week. His tweets from Wednesday have been nonetheless on-line, and Friday, he posted on X that free speech was at stake and that he wouldn’t be pressured.

“I’m sticking to my ideas!” he replied to 1 consumer. 

“As for any faux advocacy teams who search to suppress free speech, they need to keep in mind that karma is actual,” he added. 

A consultant for X didn’t instantly reply to an interview request Friday. 

IBM stated Thursday it had pulled its commercials from X. A latest investigation by the progressive group Media Issues discovered that commercials from IBM and different companies have been operating on X adjoining to pro-Nazi materials. 

“IBM has zero tolerance for hate speech and discrimination and we’ve got instantly suspended all promoting on X whereas we examine this fully unacceptable scenario,” the corporate stated in a press release. A consultant for IBM added that the corporate was investigating the Media Issues report, not Musk’s posts particularly. 

The Walt Disney Firm can be pausing spending on X, in keeping with a supply with direct information. Its choice was earlier reported by The New York Instances. Two different media corporations, Paramount International and Warner Bros. Discovery, stated by means of representatives late Friday that they have been pausing, too.

Comcast and NBCUniversal are additionally holding off on promoting on the X platform, a spokesperson stated Friday. (Comcast owns NBCUniversal, which is the father or mother firm of NBC Information.)

Apple can be holding off on promoting on X, an individual accustomed to the matter informed CNBC.

The European Fee determined to cease promoting on X over considerations about disinformation, Politico reported Friday. A fee spokesperson didn’t instantly reply to a request for touch upon the report.

Linda Yaccarino, the CEO of X, stated on the platform Thursday that antisemitism and discrimination are unacceptable, although she didn’t instantly deal with Musk’s tweets or IBM’s transfer.

“With regards to this platform — X has additionally been extraordinarily clear about our efforts to fight antisemitism and discrimination. There’s no place for it anyplace on the earth — it’s ugly and flawed. Full cease,” she wrote. X additionally stated in an e mail that Media Issues’ investigation was flawed, partially as a result of advertisements are designed to observe individuals as they browse the location, so the researcher noticed the identical advertisements a number of instances in methods others won’t. 

Musk defended his previous tweets in an interview with CNBC in Could, saying he’s a “prosemite,” not an antisemite.  

Musk’s newest feedback got here at a fraught time for Jews worldwide and in Israel. Stories of antisemitic incidents within the U.S. climbed 388% within the aftermath of Hamas’ terrorist assaults final month in comparison with the identical interval final yr, in keeping with the ADL. This week, the Biden administration introduced an effort to scale back antisemitism and Islamophobia. 

Rabbi Abraham Cooper, the director of worldwide social motion for the Simon Wiesenthal Middle, a company named for the famed Nazi hunter, stated he was baffled by the best way Musk makes use of X. 

“I don’t perceive why Elon Musk, regardless that it’s his toy, would soar in with this type of assertion, no matter his motivation could also be, that additional includes him with bigots,” he stated. 

“I virtually really feel like saying to him, ‘Develop up,’” he added. 

Specialists who examine antisemitism and different extremism stated Musk was parroting decades-old baseless claims about Jews’ colluding with each other on the expense of others. 

“Not solely is there no proof; these have been discredited time and time once more,” stated Matthew Hughey, a sociology professor on the College of Connecticut who has studied white supremacy. 

Musk has 163 million followers on X, greater than anybody else, so what he publishes can have an actual influence on the real-world actions of others, Hughey added. 

“We must always anticipate to see extra hate crimes and rallying round this sort of discourse due to his amplification,” he stated. 

Musk’s tweet was the third put up in a thread involving different individuals. The preliminary put up, by a self-described Jewish conservative from South Florida, was a video condemning antisemitism on-line. It stated: “You bought one thing you need to say? Why dont you say it to our faces.”

The second individual then jumped in with a multi-paragraph define of a conspiracy idea typically often known as the “nice alternative idea,” which has been amplified by former Fox Information host Tucker Carlson, amongst others. This individual stated that Jewish communities have been pushing “hatred towards whites” and that Jews help “flooding” the U.S. with “hordes of minorities.” 

The individual wrote that he was “deeply disinterested” in “western Jewish populations” who at the moment are going through threats, to which Musk responded, “You’ve stated the precise fact.” 

By Friday, Musk’s tweet had obtained 6.7 million views on X, in keeping with the location’s view counter. 

Musk has a protracted historical past of amplifying antisemitic conspiracy theories. In 2018, he tweeted: “Who do you suppose *owns* the press? Good day”; in a follow-up tweet in response to accusations of antisemitism on the time, he stated he was referring solely to “highly effective individuals.” Final yr, he tweeted a photograph of Adolf Hitler as a part of an obvious joke and welcomed again the rapper Ye, previously often known as Kanye West, to social media regardless of Ye’s antisemitic feedback. 

“Elon Musk has been making antisemitic feedback on Twitter and on different codecs for a lot of, a few years,” stated Bauer, of the College of Alabama. 

“When somebody tells you who they’re, you need to hear, and he’s lengthy been telling us that he’s an antisemite,” he stated.