Democrats Blast Musk Over Antisemitism on X Social Platform

(Bloomberg) -- US lawmakers plan to ask Elon Musk to retract his backing for an antisemitic post on his social media platform X, Democratic Representative Jamie Raskin said.

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While Raskin didn’t spell out the content or the appeal’s supporters, it signals further backlash against anti-Jewish commentary on the platform that has prompted companies such as Apple Inc. and Walt Disney Co. to halt advertising. Musk responded to the uproar on Sunday, saying on X that he isn’t antisemitic.

Last week, the X owner agreed with a post that said Jewish people hold a “dialectical hatred” of white people, responding with “You have said the actual truth.”

“I thought it was outrageous and dangerous,” Raskin said on CNN’s State of the Union on Sunday. “And we will be taking action with colleagues this week to write to him, to ask him to renounce those comments and to clean up his act.”

Senator Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat from Connecticut, called the post an “absolute abhorrence” and “sickening.”

“I encourage, in fact, I urge advertisers like IBM, which has done so, to withdraw from X and to send a message to Elon Musk that hate has no place on this powerful megaphone,” Blumenthal said on NBC’s Meet the Press.

Musk said news stories calling him antisemitic were “bogus.”

“Nothing could be further from the truth,” he said on X. “I wish only the best for humanity and a prosperous and exciting future for all.”

Read more: Musk’s Comment and Rampant Antisemitism on X Fuel Outrage

The post also prompted backlash from the Biden administration and shareholders of Tesla Inc., Musk’s only publicly traded company. Some shareholders said he should be suspended as chief executive of the electric car maker.

A range of advertisers have halted spending on X after a Media Matters report found that several companies ran ads on the social media platform next to pro-Nazi content.

“X has been extremely clear about our efforts to combat antisemitism and discrimination,” Chief Executive Officer Linda Yaccarino said on the platform on Friday.

Hedge fund manager Bill Ackman defended Elon Musk in an X post on Saturday, saying that he is “not perfect, but the world is a vastly better place because of him.”

(Updates with Musk comments in second and seventh paragraphs.)

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