Elon Musk is fighting back against efforts by the left-wing Anti-Defamation League (ADL) to cut off ad revenue from X, formerly known as Twitter, threatening the infamous organization with a lawsuit and the disclosure of their communications with the company.
“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!” said Musk in a post yesterday.
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
Advertisers avoid controversy, so all that is needed for ADL to crush our US & European ad revenue is to make unfounded accusations. They have much less power in Asia, so our ad revenue there is still strong.
This “controversy” causes advertisers to “pause”, but that pause is…
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 4, 2023
“Advertisers avoid controversy, so all that is needed for ADL to crush our US & European ad revenue is to make unfounded accusations. They have much less power in Asia, so our ad revenue there is still strong,” continued Musk.
The billionaire explained, “This ‘controversy’ causes advertisers to ‘pause,’ but that pause is permanent until ADL gives the green light, which they will not do without us agreeing to secretly suspend or shadowban any account they don’t like. That is the relationship they’ve had with X/Twitter for many years. Presumably, they have that with all western search or social media orgs.”
Musk’s comments come after he announced that Twitter/X lost 60 percent of its advertising revenue in the U.S., a major setback he directly blamed the ADL for.
The ADL, currently run by former Obama staffer Jonathan Greenblatt, is one the leading organizations pushing for censorship of online speech. It has longstanding relationships with social media platforms and their advertisers, using the latter as a cudgel against the former when required.
The ADL relentlessly pressures for effective conservative speech to be silenced. The pro-censorship organization ran a campaign to force Tucker Carlson out of Fox News for several years.
The face-off between Musk and the ADL started after Greenblatt posted on the platform about his recent discussions with Twitter/X’s new CEO, Linda Yaccarino.
I had a very frank + productive conversation with [Linda Yaccarino] yesterday about X, what works and what doesn’t, and where it needs to go to address hate effectively on the platform,” said Greenblatt. “I appreciated her reaching out and I’m hopeful the service will improve. ADL will be vigilant and give her and Elon Musk credit if the service gets better… and reserve the right to call them out until it does.”
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…
— Jonathan Greenblatt (@JGreenblattADL) August 30, 2023
The post from the head of the unpopular organization led to a storm of pressure from prominent X influencers for Musk to “ban the ADL,” leading to a response from Musk.
ADL has tried very hard to strangle X/Twitter
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 1, 2023
“ADL has tried very hard to strangle X/Twitter,” said Musk in response to one such post.
As momentum grew behind the “Ban the ADL” hashtag, Musk began toying with the idea of a lawsuit over the weekend.
“Would be hilariously ironic for the Anti-Defamation League to lose a defamation lawsuit,” said Musk.
Would be hilariously ironic for the Anti-Defamation League to lose a defamation lawsuit
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 3, 2023
On Monday, Musk continued to call out the far-left organization.
“Since the acquisition, The ADL has been trying to kill this platform by falsely accusing it & me of being anti-Semitic,” said Musk. “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!”
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
Musk also said that the ADL fought “very hard” for Twitter/X to suspend anti-woke accounts like Libs of TikTok, even though the demands had nothing to do with allegations of antisemitism.
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
Interesting.
In our case, they would potentially be on the hook for destroying half the value of the company, so roughly $22 billion.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 4, 2023
Based on what we’ve heard from advertisers, ADL seems to be responsible for most of our revenue loss.
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…
— 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,” said Musk later in the day.
“Based on what we’ve heard from advertisers, ADL seems to be responsible for most of our revenue loss. 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 all communications between The ADL and advertisers will tell the full story.”
Great point. A giant data dump would clear the air.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 4, 2023
True
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 4, 2023
In response to a suggestions from Libs of TikTok, Musk also promised to disclose communications between the ADL and X/Twitter, saying a “giant data dump would clear the air.”
“Might take until next week, as we’re short-staffed this week,” said Musk in a followup.
Allum Bokhari is the senior technology correspondent at Breitbart News. He is the author of #DELETED: Big Tech’s Battle to Erase the Trump Movement and Steal The Election. Follow him on Twitter @AllumBokhari.