Elon Musk launched an unprovoked Twitter attack against George Soros, a frequent target of anti-Semitic conspiracy theories, accusing the philanthropist of hating humanity, days after Soros revealed he had sold a stake in Tesla.
While Musk’s comments made no mention of the billionaire’s ethnicity, Musk was criticized for dangerous rhetoric that could fuel further attacks on Soros.
In a tweet on Monday, Musk compared him to MagnetoX-Men villain [da Marvel], who, like Soros, was a Holocaust survivor, according to the comic book storyline. When a Twitter user defended Soros as well-intentioned, and those who disagreed with his policies criticized him, Musk replied: “I suppose they are well-intentioned. They are not. He wants to erode the very fabric of civilization.” Soros hates humanity. “
Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), an international Jewish non-governmental organization based in the United States, criticized Musk’s comment, saying that ‘You will encourage extremists’.
“Soros is often singled out by the alt-right, using anti-Semitic analogies, as the source of the world’s problems,” Greenblatt wrote on Twitter. “To see Elon Musk, whatever his intentions, fuel this — comparing him to a Jewish supervillain and claiming that Soros hates humanity — is not only sad, but dangerous: He would embolden extremists who concoct anti-Jewish plots, and as a result have already tried to attack Soros and the Jewish communities. “.
In response to Greenblatt’s tweet, Musk responded with two tweets: in one he wrote “Hey, stop defaming me”; In the other he said so “ADL should delete the letter ‘A'” [passando a ser liga da difamação e não antidifamação].
In an interview with CNBC after Tesla’s shareholder meeting on Tuesday, Musk defended his tweets about Soros, including asserting that, in his opinion, Soros hates humanity. Musk said he has the right to tweet his opinions, even if it takes away Twitter’s biggest source of revenue. He also said he “didn’t care” whether his controversial tweets angered Tesla customers or Twitter advertisers.
“I say what I mean, and if that results in losing money, so be it,” Musk said in the interview.
Musk often tweets incendiary comments, including those that support conspiracy theories.
Twitter has seen a sharp decline in ad revenue since Musk took control of the company in 2022. Last week, Musk announced that Linda Iaccarino, NBC’s global advertising director, would be Twitter’s new CEO, replacing him in his position.
Soros, 92, is a longtime target of right-wing conspiracy theorists and anti-Semites. He is a major contributor to Democratic candidates and liberal causes. Open Secrets, which tracks political contributions, shows he contributed $50 million to the Democracy PAC II Superpac in November and $125 million in the fall of 2022.
He is also a founder and major contributor to the Open Society Foundations, whose stated goal is to work for justice, democratic governance, and human rights. This institution has angered some authoritarian regimes, including that of Viktor Orban, Prime Minister of Hungary, Soros’ home country. Orban is an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, accused of authoritarian policies in Hungary.
Attacks on Soros have increased in recent years, along with a widespread increase in anti-Semitic incidents. According to the Anti-Defamation League, such attacks reached their highest level in the United States last year, since the group began recording them in 1979.
Some right-wing influencers in the United States have embraced foreign authoritarian leaders who oppose Soros, such as Orban. Donald Trump and many Republicans who attacked New York District Attorney Alvin Bragg for bringing criminal charges against the former president did not hesitate to point out that Bragg had Soros’ support in his campaign.
Since taking control of Twitter, Musk has come under fire for allowing Nazi sympathizers to return to the social network, as part of a broader process to lift accounts that had previously been suspended, due to his policy of supporting “free speech”. Among those allowed back on Twitter was Andrew Anglin, a staunch white supremacist who founded the neo-Nazi website The Daily Stormer.
Studies by the ADL and the Center for Countering Digital Hate, a UK NGO, found that the volume of hate speech on Twitter grew exponentially under the Musk administration. Musk called the reports from the two organizations “totally false,” saying that the number of times a tweet containing hate speech was seen “continues to drop” since the early days at the helm of the company, when the platform recorded a spike in word of mouth. Of hate designed to test musk’s tolerance.
Musk, who has nearly 140 million followers on Twitter, has amplified right-wing arguments and some conspiracy theories, including an unsubstantiated claim about the violent attack on Paul Pelosi, husband of former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. (The tweet’s mask was later deleted.) Musk has also personally attacked those he disagrees with or those who criticize his companies.
Soros’ investment in Tesla was modest in terms of his total investment portfolio. According to the US Securities and Exchange Commission, Soros bought 89,600 shares in the second quarter of 2022 and held them through the third quarter before buying another 242,000 shares in the last three months of the year. But he sold his entire stake in the first three months of 2023.
Musk actually sold a lot Tesla stock In recent months, it has been grappling with mounting losses on Twitter, which it bought in October. It recently sold 22 million shares in December. But he is still by far Tesla’s largest shareholder.
* Alison Morrow and Oliver Darcy contributed to this article
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