The pro-Israel lobbying group capitalized on the fact that advertisers steer clear of controversies. So, ADL used this to crush the U.S. and European ad revenue and made unfounded accusations, Musk said Monday night on X, adding that the group has much less power in Asia, so the ad revenue in the continent is still strong. "This 'controversy' causes advertisers to 'pause', but that pause is permanent until ADL gives the green light, which they will not do without us agreeing to secretly suspend or shadow ban any account they don't like," he revealed. "That is the relationship they've had with X/Twitter for many years. Presumably, they have that with all Western search or social media organizations."
Advertisers avoid controversy, so all that is needed for ADL to crush our US & European ad revenue is to make unfounded accusations. They have much less power in Asia, so our ad revenue there is still strong.
This “controversy” causes advertisers to “pause”, but that pause is…
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 4, 2023
The tech giant chief said he would not ban ADL "unless they break the law" but it looks like he'll have no choice but to file a defamation lawsuit against the Anti-Defamation League. "Oh the irony!" he added. He also vowed to start releasing a giant data dump of ADL's shadowy pressure campaigns in the coming days and weeks to clear the air. (Related: Undercover journalist exposes ADL for dark and nefarious social media censorship plot.)
"ADL has pushed hard for us to shut down accounts like [LibsOfTikTok founder Chaya Raichik's], even though it has nothing to do with anti-Semitism, which is their supposed charter!" Musk revealed in another tweet.
Meanwhile, despite the gravity of the organization's interference in Musk's businesses, not a single congressman has come out to signify interest in probing or even just to criticize the incident. On the other hand, the Israeli government already signified support of the ADL immediately after Musk exposed it and condemned its critics as Jew-hating conspiracy theorists and white supremacists.
Due to the recent developments, Musk's father Errol told the Sun that he fears his son could be in deep trouble for going up against powerful forces in the U.S. government. The older Musk reacted to a recent New Yorker piece by journalist Ronan Farrow titled "Elon Musk's Shadow Rule," saying: "It's a hit job, a shadow government-sponsored opening salvo on Elon. The artillery-like softening up of the enemy before the actual attack and preparing of the ever-submissive people for the attack."
He answered the question of whether he worries that the "shadow government" will try to assassinate his son, he replied: "Yes." He already previously warned his son to beef up his security and confirmed Elon shared the same fear.
The Musks' fear is not "unfounded" as the ADL was accused in the past of being involved in the Jewish Defense League's firebombing assassination of Alex Odeh at his office in Santa Ana, California. Odeh was a Palestinian-American who founded his own ADL-like group he dubbed the Arab-American Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) to fight against the ADL's agenda. Meanwhile, suspected Israeli intelligence agents are getting exposed for trying to influence the anti-ADL campaign on Twitter/X.
ADL almost killed X: Musk
In the lawsuit that he is going to file, Musk will ask for roughly $22 billion in damages due to their advertiser boycotts. He added that U.S. advertising revenue is "still down 60 percent, primarily due to pressure on advertisers by @ADL (that's what advertisers tell us), so they almost succeeded in killing X/Twitter!"
The Big Tech top executive also claimed that since he took over the platform in October 2022, the ADL has been trying to kill the platform by falsely accusing it and him of being anti-Semitic. "To be super clear, I'm pro-free speech, but against anti-Semitism of any kind," Musk posted in a separate tweet.
ADL responded to this matter that as per policy, it does not comment on legal threats. But the organization noted that it recently met with X leadership, including CEO Linda Yaccarino, who was hired by Musk to help regain ad revenue. Yaccarino thanked ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt following the meeting last week, saying in a post on the site that: "A strong and productive partnership is built on good intentions and candor."
Despite the claimed partnership formed, a #BanTheADL campaign came out on Musk's social media platform, prompting ADL to accuse the South Africa-born entrepreneur of "lifting" the campaign. "ADL is unsurprised yet undeterred that antisemites, white supremacists, conspiracy theorists, and other trolls have launched a coordinated attack on our organization. This type of thing is nothing new," an ADL spokesperson said.
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