Elon Musk promoting antisemitic post was ‘abhorrent,’ White House says

The Biden administration on Friday slammed Elon Musk after the billionaire owner of X Corp. responded to a social-media post that promoted an antisemitic conspiracy, calling his reply “abhorrent.”

Musk on Wednesday replied to the post on X, formerly Twitter, with the comment: “You have said the actual truth.” The post said Jewish people hold a “dialectical hatred” of white people.

“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,” said White House spokesman Andrew Bates.

“We condemn this abhorrent promotion of antisemitic and racist hate in the strongest terms, which runs against our core values as Americans,” Bates said in a statement.

The statement is the latest instance of public pressure on Musk — who is also the chief executive of Tesla
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— following IBM Corp.’s abrupt pulling of ads from X. The company told MarketWatch in a statement: “IBM has zero tolerance for hate speech and discrimination and we have immediately suspended all advertising on X while we investigate this entirely unacceptable situation.”

Read: IBM pulls ads from X after Elon Musk’s comments appear to endorse antisemitic conspiracy theory

IBM
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suspended advertising following a report by the Financial Times on Thursday that IBM ads appeared next to posts supporting Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party. An X executive told MarketWatch that the company did a “sweep” of the accounts next to the IBM ads. Those accounts “will no longer be monetizable” and specific posts will be labeled “Sensitive Media.”

In September, Musk told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that he is “against antisemitism” and against “anything that promotes hate and conflict.”

Now see: Israel’s Netanyahu urges Elon Musk to control antisemitism on X

Linda Yaccarino, the chief executive of X, said in a post on Thursday that “discrimination by everyone should STOP across the board.” She did not refer to Musk in her post.

Jon Swartz contributed

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