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Tag: neo nazi
Elon Musk

Will Musk Walk Away From The Smoking Crater That Was Formerly Twitter?

In a fantastic appearance on Wednesday afternoon, Elon Musk told advertisers who had left his X (formerly Twitter) social media site, “Go fuck yourself.” It was not the only F-bomb Musk dropped in a heated rant that included blaming advertisers for the failure of what once was Twitter and accusing them of trying to “blackmail” him by refusing to advertise.

According to the BBC, advertising made up 90 percent of Twitter’s revenue before Musk took over. Immediately following his purchase of the company, Twitter was flooded with an explosion of racism. Within three months, ad revenue dropped by 50%. In his speech, which was given before attendees at The New York Times' DealBook Summit and who sometimes seemed shocked into silence, Musk both admitted that the departure of advertisers would kill the company, and vowed that he would not bail it out with his own money.

It’s been only 13 months since Musk spent $44 billion on Twitter. At the end of October, the employee equity plan set the company’s value at $19 billion. That was before Musk endorsed an antisemitic post based on the “great replacement” conspiracy theory and sent the remaining advertisers fleeing in droves.

If the company should fail in the coming weeks, it will be one of the largest, most astounding, and most self-inflicted business failures in history.

Musk’s conversation with Times columnist Andrew Ross Sorkin extended for more than an hour, during which time Musk apologized for supporting the antisemitic post, saying it was the "dumbest" thing he has shared online.

However, that’s highly debatable.

Was it dumber than Musk threatening to sue researchers who documented a rise in hate speech on Twitter? Was it dumber than when he sued Media Matters for America for demonstrating how ads can fall next to racist or antisemitic posts? Was it dumber than when he threatened to sue the Anti-Defamation League after they found his site overrun with accounts pushing “virulent antisemitism”?

Was it dumber than when Musk welcomed back infamous neo-Nazis, including the man who created the Nazi site “The Daily Stormer” and was an organizer of 2017’s torch-wielding Nazi march in Charlottesville? Dumber than when he welcomed a neo-Nazi group that was suspended for repeatedly pushing the same “great replacement” conspiracy that Musk endorsed in his post? Was it dumber than when he falsely accused a Jewish man of being a neo-Nazi involved in a street brawl?

Was it dumber than when he drove away NPR by labeling them as government-controlled media and then threatened to give away their account so someone else could masquerade as NPR? Dumber than the whole blue checkmark scheme?

Was it dumber than when he accused Black people in South Africa of openly plotting “white genocide”? Dumber than when he reposted a “white lives matter” tweet from a notorious white supremacist? Dumber than when he said the Biden administration was destroying democracy? Or when he defended slavery? Or when he spent Pride Month handing out “likes” to transphobic tweets? Or when he said the media was racist against white and Asian people, and defended a man who called for segregation? Dumber than when he went to the southern border in a cowboy hat and video game T-shirt to spend a day endorsing false claims about an immigrant invasion?

Elon Musk apologized for one post. But advertisers didn’t leave the site formerly known as Twitter because of one post. They left because Musk gutted the site’s moderation teams, welcomed those who spread hate and lies, repeatedly demonstrated that he was always ready to believe a racist conspiracy theory, and showed he would make a threat at the drop of a hat.

Following Musk’s swear-laden appearance, Linda Yaccarino—the world’s most sidelined CEO—reposted a recording of Musk’s full DealBook interview (including the “go fuck yourself” line) and added: “And here’s my perspective when it comes to advertising: X is standing at a unique and amazing intersection of Free Speech and Main Street — and the X community is powerful and is here to welcome you. To our partners who believe in our meaningful work -- Thank You.”

Sure. That’ll work.

There’s no doubt that X is the place to be if you believe the 53 million people who died in World War II didn’t adequately explore the debate between fascism and democracy. Several people who share that belief have already volunteered to hand over their cash to the world’s richest man. But it’s not going to be enough.

Musk already admitted that his site is doomed without advertisers. Then he drove a final stake through the idea of any of those advertisers returning. Then he vowed not to keep X alive with more of his own cash.

All that’s left is the construction of a post-mortem mythology in which Musk complains that he tried to save free speech with $44 billion and his valuable time but that the horrible wokeism (or cancel culture, or whatever boogeyman the right wing invents next) just wouldn’t let him.

Anyway, get ready for the funeral.

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.

Elon Musk

Elon Musk Praises Antisemitic 'Replacement' Theory As 'The Truth'

Ever in search of a new low, Elon Musk managed to find one on November 15 when he declared on X (formerly known as Twitter) that a paid X Premium (previously Twitter Blue) user’s antisemitic conspiracy theory attacking Jewish people was the “actual truth.”

The antisemitic post Musk endorsed came in response to a user writing, “To the cowards hiding behind the anonymity of the internet and posting 'Hitler was right': You got something you want to say? Why don't you say it to our faces…”

The conspiracy theory, that Jewish populations are pushing “hatred against whites” and supporting “hordes of minorities” coming into the country, is the same one that motivated the 2018 Tree of Life shooter in Pittsburgh, as noted by The Atlantic’s Yair Rosenberg. Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes and other figures linked to white nationalism are cheering on Musk.

The Tree of Life shooter, who was found guilty this year, wrote on far-right platform Gab that he blamed Jewish people in the U.S. “for bringing in an invasion of nonwhite immigrants.” (Gab owner Andrew Torba is also one of the people cheering on Musk; Gab’s X account even bragged about red-pilling Musk on “JQ” – that is, the “Jewish question.”)

How did we get from a mass shooter writing something on a platform that most people have never visited to Musk endorsing it? First, Musk himself has rebuilt X around extremists like this, making a concentrated effort to lift up extremism, even providing financial incentives.

Musk’s platform, ostensibly run by CEO Linda Yaccarino, has said that posts claiming “Hitler was right” and that there needs to be a “final solution” regarding Jewish people don’t violate the platform’s “safety policies”; run ads for major brands on Holocaust denial accounts; and apparently paid a pro-Hitler Holocaust denier a share of its ad revenue.

Indeed, Musk and Yaccarino have reinstated known white nationalists and antisemites on the platform. Musk has directly engaged with some of the reinstated antisemitic accounts and amplified conspiracy theories that were used to push antisemitism. Musk’s posts earlier this year earned the praise of a leading neo-Nazi.

Don't overlook the role of Fox News here

But the true middleman between the Tree of Life shooter in 2018 and the billionaire CEO of Tesla and SpaceX is Fox News — and specifically Lachlan Murdoch.

In the immediate aftermath of the shooting, a Fox guest railed against the “Soros-occupied State Department.” TPM’s Josh Marshall noted that this claim was “straight out of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, the foundational anti-Semitic tract.” The guest was banned from Fox; in retrospect it appears his main offense was being ahead of the curve.

Indeed, it did not take long after the Tree of Life shooting for the conspiracy theory to pop up on Fox News, with former host Glenn Beck in particular making a similar argument while appearing on Sean Hannity’s show.

The major inflection point came when then-Fox host Tucker Carlson pushed his own version of replacement theory in 2021. There was a big outrage — but Fox Corp. CEO Lachlan Murdoch personally made clear that Carlson had the green light to go there. And go there he did. A New York Times analysis, conducted before Fox fired Carlson, shows that he pushed it in more than 400 episodes.

And now it’s not just Carlson. Numerous Fox personalities and others have followed his lead and made the conspiracy theory into a core plank in GOP politics.

Of course, Carlson now effectively works for Musk.

Reprinted with permission from Media Matters.

Nick Fuentes

Rumble To Host Third GOP Debate As Neo-Nazi Fuentes Grows Audience There

Between vile antisemitic statements, white nationalist influencer and Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes has been celebrating his viewership on Rumble, the alternative video hosting site and exclusive streaming partner for the upcoming Republican presidential debate. While Fuentes is a constant source of extreme hatred and bigotry, his comments are especially disturbing as incidents of antisemitism have increased around the world in the context of Israel’s siege on Gaza following the October 7 Hamas attack. In addition to Rumble, NBC News will partner with the Republican Jewish Coalition to host the third GOP presidential debate.

Fuentes streams live on Rumble multiple times a week, usually for well over an hour at a time. Since the outbreak of violence in Israel and Gaza in October, he’s been using the opportunity to double down on his antisemitic and white nationalist rhetoric.

“It's not just the mass migration, it's not just that the country's becoming non-white, it's that the country is being held hostage by Jews,” Fuentes told his more than 40 thousand Rumble followers on October 31.

During the same stream, Fuentes noted that his audience size has grown and is now perhaps even greater than it was on YouTube before he was banned from the site. He said, “And now, I think the show is bigger than it's been in a really long time.”

A week prior, Fuentes claimed that those who have lost their jobs for supporting Palestine prove the validity of his attacks against Jewish people and summarized his antisemitic views: “Why do these Zionist Jews have so much power in Western countries? I guess that means Nick Fuentes was right, and it isn’t Klaus Schwab. It's the Zionists, and it's the Jews. It's organized Jewry.”

He continued, warning against what he described as “a lot of Jews that are sneaking into the dissident conversation because they wanna control all the opposition” and arguing that Jewish people are attempting to co-opt racism to be used against Palestinians. But, he claimed, “We’re more antisemitic than we’re racist.”

Having previously served as an adviser to rapper Ye’s 2024 presidential campaign, Fuentes complained, “They did the same thing last year with Ye. When Ye was out there saying, ‘I love Hitler. Jews control the media.’” Fuentes continued, claiming “based right-wing Jews” attacked the rapper and had questioned, “‘Since when did we start supporting Black guys?’” Fuentes quickly followed up: “When they started saying they love Hitler. About right around then.”

Despite his extensive use of the site, Fuentes has a strained relationship with Rumble. Media Matters reported that for a short period, Fuentes was suspended from livestreaming to the platform and restricted to only uploading “replays,” or previously recorded content, after having some of his videos removed from the site for violating the platform’s policies against “incitement to violence.” As recently as August 8, it appears Fuentes had resumed streaming directly to Rumble, and he has since celebrated his popularity on the site.

Rumble was also the exclusive livestreaming partner for the last two GOP debates and now, alongside the RNC and the Republican Jewish Coalition, is partnering to host the third. The platform is rife with violent extremism, misinformation, and other harmful content and serves as an alternative “free speech” space for exiled far-right figures to share the hateful rhetoric other sites have banned.

Rumble also makes money off the antisemitic, white nationalist, and QAnon content on the site. Rumble even placed RNC ads on a number of pro-Hitler videos, on top of providing a home to creators who deny the Holocaust, praise Nazis, and even call for the murder of Catholic Charity workers.

Reprinted with permission from Media Matters.

Linda Yaccarino

Musk's X: 'Hitler Was Right' Didn't 'Violate Our Safety Policies'

X's internal reporting system repeatedly responded that posts claiming “Hitler was right” and that there needs to be a “final solution” regarding Jewish people don't violate the platform’s “safety policies.” This isn’t an isolated example: The Center for Countering Digital Hate similarly released a report today finding that X has failed to remove neo-Nazi content on its platform in numerous cases.

X CEO Linda Yaccarino has tried to mollify advertisers by claiming that her company “opposes antisemitism in all its forms” and “will always work to fight it.” But X has repeatedly shown that it cares little about antisemtism and bigotry on its platform. And owner Elon Musk has repeatedly engaged with antisemitism. This has created a toxic atmosphere for brands, where their advertisements appear directly on pro-Hitler, Holocaust denial, white nationalist, pro-violence, and neo-Nazi accounts. Ads have also recently appeared next to unhinged conspiracy theories about Jewish people and 9/11.

X claims in its “safety” policies section that it does not allow “Hateful conduct,” saying: “You may not directly attack other people on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin, caste, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, religious affiliation, age, disability, or serious disease.” It specifically states that violations of this policy include “genocides, (e.g., the Holocaust).”

The Center for Countering Digital Hate released a report today finding that “researchers identified a total of 140 posts that promoted antisemitism, including racist caricatures of Jewish people and claims that Jews control the world. X continued hosting this content in 85.00% (119) of cases.”

In light of Musk’s interactions with antisemitic users surrounding the “BanTheADL” campaign, Media Matters ran a test of X’s system for reporting policy violations by flagging 28 posts that specifically claimed that “Hitler was right” or a “final solution” is needed for Jewish people. X’s reporting system responded in five instances by telling us those don’t violate the platform’s policies.

At time of publishing, there have been zero instances of X telling us a post with either of those phrases was a violation, though three posts are no longer available: X told us it took action against one account based on “different reports we received about their behavior” and two reported posts no longer exist due to the tweet having “been deleted” and the account “no longer exists.” X took no apparent action nor responded to reports on the remaining posts that we flagged.

The five posts that X told us didn't violate their policies are:

  • Based_bigfoot wrote: “@elonmusk We really need to solve this problem. We need, like, a final solution.” (X's response.)
  • Dirlewanger8814 wrote: “@I98Kev @elonmusk @bennyjohnson It happened because Hitler was right about everything and most of his people knew it.” (X's response.)
  • HCollinns wrote: “@Resurrec_Ted @KeithWoodsYT [ADL CEO Jonathan] Greenblatt - proving Hitler was right one tweet at a time.” (X's response.)
  • OrganicReportin wrote: “@elonmusk Elon most the mainstream media are jews. Hitler was right. Also only 270.000 jew were in EUROPE IN THE 1940S. So who do you think BS the whole world telling us 6 million we in Europe who were killed? fake news from the jews. You ban on this and you too are owned by jews.” (X's response.)
  • PastorJim316 wrote: “@G_U_N_N_A_R_ A final solution for the ADL problem is needed.” (X's response.)

Reprinted with permission from Media Matters.