Elon Musk deletes tweet encouraging people to follow anti-Semitic account

9 October, 2023

Elon Musk

Elon Musk directed his nearly 160 million followers on X to follow two accounts for updates on the Israel-Gaza conflict – only for one of them to have a history of anti-Semitism.

In a since-deleted tweet posted on Sunday (October 8), Musk, the owner of X, wrote: “For following the war in real-time, @WarMonitors & @sentdefender are good.”

He added: “It is also worth following direct sources on the ground. Please add interesting options in the replies below.”

CNN journalist Jake Tapper screenshotted the tweet and posted it alongside an exchange between War Monitor and a user named Avi Kaner, where the account is seen using derogatory language.

In the caption, Tapper wrote: “Elon Musk lauds this bigot as a good source of information, part Infiniti.”

Musk appears to have deleted the tweet after criticising War Monitor’s use of language in a post on the same day, where the account listed the names of “twenty martyrs (numerous families) murdered in an airstrike on their home in Beit Hanoun, Gaza tonight”.

In response, Musk wrote: “‘Martyrs’ is not an objective or accurate word, nor is ‘murdered’. The former implies dying for a cause in battle and the latter implies a deliberate attempt to kill those specific people.

“While reporting both sides is fair, please use maximally accurate or I must withdraw my recommendation to follow your account.”

Last month, a group of over 100 Jewish leaders, including prominent rabbis and academics, released a public letter criticising X, formerly known as Twitter, and Musk for allegedly allowing “anti-Semitic discourse” to “spread like wildfire”.

Musk, who has said he is “pro free speech, but against anti-Semitism of any kind”, previously threatened to sue Jewish civil-rights organisation, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) – accusing them of “trying to kill” the social media site by “falsely accusing it and me of being anti-Semitic”.

Since Musk took over Twitter in October 2022, he has reinstated previously banned users, altered the way news headlines are shown on the platform, and placed certain features, like blue tick verification, behind a paywall.

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