Dem Senator CALLS Elon Musk’s Controversial Post ‘Abhorrent’

X owner Elon Musk says he is committed to free speech on the platform, but not everybody is happy with his methods. In a Sunday interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) expressed his strong concerns about the tech billionaire’s role in transforming the social media platform he bought as Twitter.

Musk had made a tweet last week that was seen as an endorsement of a controversial post in response to an ad against antisemitism, featuring a white working-class father addressing his son about anti-Semitic posts online. The father had said that Jewish communities back “dialectrical hatred against whites.”

Many X users objected to the ad, with a White House spokesperson saying, “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.”

When asked about his reaction to Musk’s tweet, Blumenthal described his comments as “absolute abhorrent” and criticized him for proclaiming the blatantly anti-Semitic comment as “the actual truth.”

The Democrat went on to accuse Musk of turning X into a “cesspool of hate speech and extremist incitement,” urging advertisers who have not yet pulled out, like IBM, to withdraw their support to send a message that hate has no place on the platform.

“As you know, the surge of anti-Semitic, anti-Muslim white supremacist, anti-black sentiment on social media has been an incubator in fact an accelerant to more than just speech action that constitutes hate crimes,” he added.

Blumenthal’s concerns echo those of many who believe that social media platforms should take a more aggressive stance against hate speech and extremism.

The controversy surrounding X has seen a boycott initiated by several major corporations, including Apple, Disney, Sony Pictures, Comcast/NBCUniversal, Paramount, Warner Bros, and Lionsgate.

This boycott was prompted by a story published by Media Matters for America, a leftist media outlet, which capitalized on the outrage caused by Musk’s agreement with a user’s post. The article claimed that X was placing ads for major corporations alongside Nazi-related content. The companies named include Apple, Disney and Google.

Musk has, however, clarified his tweet, saying that the criticism was directed at liberal organizations claiming to represent all Jews, especially the Anti-Defamation League.

As for the story published by Media Matters, Musk has called it “misleading,” promising to take legal action against the leftist watchdog.

The split second court opens on Monday, X Corp will be filing a thermonuclear lawsuit against Media Matters and ALL those who colluded in this fraudulent attack on our company pic.twitter.com/55vl7PspaQ

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 18, 2023

He maintained that X is committed to free speech, even if it includes objectionable content, and that users have the right to decide what they read or watch.

According to Musk, Media Matters misrepresented the user experience on X, undermining freedom of speech. He further alleged that Media Matters curated content to create a contrived experience and manipulated the timeline to find instances of ads appearing next to specific content.

His defense was backed up with data indicating that a very small number of ad impressions were served alongside the content highlighted by Media Matters.