As X bleeds cash, Musk threatens Anti-Defamation League with defamation lawsuit — Musk claimed that ADL could be “on the hook” for $22B in X losses

L4sBot@lemmy.worldmod to Technology@lemmy.world – 356 points – As X bleeds cash, Musk threatens Anti-Defamation League with defamation lawsuit
arstechnica.com

As X bleeds cash, Musk threatens Anti-Defamation League with defamation lawsuit — Musk claimed that ADL could be “on the hook” for $22B in X losses::Musk claimed that ADL could be "on the hook" for $22B in X losses.

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Musk has said that unless the ADL acts unlawfully, he won't ban the ADL from X.

I predict that he's going to ban them on, let's say, Friday this week.

Musk didn't wait long to jump on the anti-Semitic tropes. Jews run the system, Jews run the banks, and so on. What a POS that guy is.

Discovery in this case would be 🔥

Advertising clients just love their internal communications being made public, this is a yet another genius move by Elon.

Musk said that once the controversy is stirred, X advertisers pause their spending until the ADL gives the green flag, which allegedly the ADL "will not do without" X "agreeing to secretly suspend or shadow-ban any account they don’t like."

"That is the relationship they’ve had with X/Twitter for many years," Musk said. "Presumably, they have that with all western search or social media orgs."

What a fucking idiot...

Like, he really seems close to getting that advertisers don't like advertising with bigots, but he thinks it has to be some grand conspiracy because he just can't fathom others having empathy. Like that's just not an option to him.

There has to be a nefarious middle man to make it happen

Lelz.

"I didn't foolishly waste my money making this idiotic purchase. YOU are the reason I'm losing money."

This is purely for attention. They are a non-profit, and certainly have nowhere near even 1/10th of that money. Say he did win a civil case, that'd shut down the ADL into bankruptcy, then they re-launch fresh.

He knows that, but he's also a sociopath and any and all attention is all he really wants.

He wouldn't win the case. But he might cost them a lot of money trying to defend it.

ADL would almost certainly file an anti-SLAPP claim and probably win. California’s anti-SLAPP law even says that it’s contents should be broadly considered as a bulwark against assholes using the courts to prevent public participation. If ADL does win an anti-SLAPP motion, Musk would end up paying their lawyers fees down to the cent.

And because he's an insecure aged boy, he doesn't have the intellect and emotional maturity to grapple with the fact his decisions are why he's failing

Has to blame someone else

I still have trouble believing that Elon can possibly be this dumb. There's something willful about everything he's doing and that includes intentionally ruining Twitter. Yes, a lot of this is for attention and theatrics, but he didn't need to buy then tank a social media platform for that.

The ADL have encouraged a boycott of advertising on Ex-Twitter because it didn’t do enough to censor nazis. Advertisers have pulled their funds. Ex-Twitter was never a great place to run ads (I’ve tried) and recently it’s become a shit show.

I don’t see how, in any of this, there is any credible case for slander/libel he can make against the ADL. And there is no way in hell that any judge would actually award $22bil in hypothetical ad revenue.

It's not for attention. It's an advertisement for Twitter.

It's aimed at recruiting more neo Nazis to the platform. If they post Nazi stuff that gets good engagement, Musk will pay them. It's Nazi welfare. He's not out to make Twitter profitable, he out to enrich the far right.

amazing.

need to disprove the accusation of racism?

just tell everyone it's a Jew conspiracy.

Rich guys like Musk spend so much time getting their ego stoked that I think he might genuinely be unable to process the idea that he made a mistake. The wealthy can never fail, only be failed.

While reading this article I scrolled up and the top of an embedded tweet was at the bottom coming onto the screen.

I instinctively (almost) tapped the X logo in its upper right corner thinking it was an ad.

Ironic how a service that can be run by volunteers on a decently low cost got taken over by one of the richest men on the planet, who then can't keep it alive because of financial problems. 😅😂

"Oh, the irony." indeed. 😂

More like sad how such a sad fucker can coast for so long on inherited wealth and reputation by buying up useful stuff and taking credit for what was developed by actual smart people

You forgot the part where he then ruins those things he takes credit for and starts to defame other groups to shift the blame. 😅

Yeah you fucking dumb shit...it's totes other folks fault your ignorant narcissistic dumb shit actions ruined a multi billion dollar company.

I wonder if his brain ended up like one of those Teslas?

stuck in park with a traffic cone on its head... yup, sounds about right.

I hope they spank him so hard his dad feels it.

I am apparently one of the dissenting voices here, having read many comments, but I do think he has a point. The ADL has an agenda and they do represent Israeli interests.

That being said... are they the cause for $22B in Twitter losses? Not likely at all.

Are they the cause for losses of individuals of that volume? Possibly

Are they the cause for losses for OPEC and islamic countries in excess of $22B? At least that much.

I have no idea whats going to happen here but discovery on this case is going to be crazy revealing. Someone shot themselves in the foot here and its either going to be Musk or the ADL.