Elon Musk's Twitter Rebranding Takes a Controversial Turn: Accusations, Ads, and the ADL

 

Elon Musk's Twitter Rebranding Takes a Controversial Turn: Accusations, Ads, and the ADL

The social media platform X, previously known as Twitter, is currently undergoing a significant rebranding effort. However, a recent advertisement it posted inadvertently brought attention to accusations made by some of its owner Elon Musk's critics.

This two-minute promotional video, unveiled on Thursday, kicks off with a flurry of user-generated posts alongside the caption, "You've been here for news, sports, and culture." Among the multitude of posts, one briefly visible comment was from a critic of Elon Musk, the platform's owner.

The comment, attributed to a prominent left-leaning account called Right Wing Cope, flashed on the screen for only a brief moment. It read: "Twitter's value has fallen by at least 50%, and Elon is blaming it all on the Jews." This comment included a screenshot of one of Musk's recent tweets where he had criticized the Anti-Defamation League (ADL).

Musk's Conflict with the ADL:

Elon Musk has accused the ADL, a Jewish anti-Semitism watchdog, of causing significant financial losses to Twitter. This accusation stems from the ADL's call for advertisers to pause their spending on the platform after Musk acquired it and removed certain restrictions against hate speech. In the comment featured in the ad, Musk asserts that the ADL "would potentially be on the hook for destroying half the value of the company." This post was part of a series of tweets in which Musk even threatened to take legal action against the ADL for the revenue losses incurred by his company and engaged with white supremacist accounts critical of the group.

Musk himself has consistently maintained that he is "pro free speech but against anti-Semitism of any kind." He recently hosted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for a live discussion, during which Netanyahu praised Musk's commitment to combating anti-Semitism and encouraged him to continue his fight against anti-Jewish bigotry.

X promptly removed the ad a few hours after its release, leading to additional commentary from Right Wing Cope and others. Subsequently, a revised version of the ad was uploaded without the critical comment about Musk.

"X removed an entire ad campaign because an editor, whether out of discontent with their boss or negligence, inadvertently included one of my tweets that referred to Elon Musk as antisemitic," Right Wing Cope tweeted in response.