Biden administration slams Elon Musk for repeating a "hideous" antisemitic lie

The White House on Friday accused Elon Musk of repeating a "hideous" antisemitic lie on his social media site X this week, calling it an "abhorrent promotion of antisemitic and racist hate" that "runs against our core values as Americans." The White House statement follows decisions by at least two more major corporations to pull their advertising dollars from X after watchdog Media Matters found ads by IBM, Apple, and others were placed alongside content promoting Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party. Responding to Musk's post on Wednesday, the White House condemned what it called an "abhorrent promotion of antisemitic and racist hate" that "runs against our core values as Americans." Musk on Wednesday endorsed a post on X that falsely claimed Jewish people were stoking hatred against white people, saying the user who referenced the "Great Replacement" conspiracy theory was speaking "the actual truth." That conspiracy theory holds that Jewish people and leftists are engineering the ethnic and cultural replacement of white populations with non-white immigrants that will lead to a "white genocide." "It is unacceptable to repeat the hideous lie... one month after the deadliest day for the Jewish people since the Holocaust," White House spokesperson Andrew Bates said, referring to Hamas' Oct. 7 attack on Israel. Representatives for Musk and X on Friday again declined to comment on Musk's post on Wednesday. Lions Gate Entertainment Corp. on Friday said it was pausing its X ads, while Axios reported Apple, the world's largest company by market value, was also pausing its ads. IBM on Thursday halted its advertising on the platform. "When it comes to this platform, X has also been extremely clear about our efforts to combat antisemitism and discrimination. There's no place for it anywhere in the world; it's ugly and wrong. Full stop," X CEO Linda Yaccarino wrote on Thursday. Advertisers have fled the site since Musk bought it in October 2022 and reduced content moderation, resulting in a sharp rise in hate speech on X, civil rights groups have said. Antisemitism has been on the rise in recent years in the United States and worldwide. Following the outbreak of war between Israel and Palestinian Islamist group Hamas after last month's attack, antisemitic incidents in the United States rose by nearly 400% from the year-earlier period, according to the Anti-Defamation League, a nonprofit that fights antisemitism. Musk, chief executive of electric vehicle maker Tesla and founder of rocket company SpaceX, has blamed the Anti-Defamation League for the ongoing drop in advertisers without offering any evidence.