On Monday, Sept. 18, Israel’s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, met with Elon Musk in hopes to thwart antisemitic hate speech on the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter. This was after Musk blamed the Anti-Defamation League for trying to “kill” his platform.
Musk, without evidence, accused the ADL, a non-profit that fights against antisemitic, extremism, and hate, of causing a 60% decrease in U.S. ad revenue. Since then, Musk has responded to users on X who have voiced antisemitic ideals.
In their meeting, Netanyahu urged Musk to find a balance between the First Amendment and stopping hate speech.
I hope you find, within the confines of the First Amendment, the ability to stop antisemitism or roll it back as best you can, but also any collective hatred of a people like the one antisemitism represents. I urge and encourage you to find the balance.
Israel’s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu
“I hope you find, within the confines of the First Amendment, the ability to stop antisemitism or roll it back as best you can, but also any collective hatred of a people like the one antisemitism represents. I urge and encourage you to find the balance,” Netanyahu said.
While Musk said he is openly against hatred toward any group and anything that promotes hatred and conflict, the First Amendment protects freedom of speech.
“Free speech at times means that someone you don’t like says something you don’t like,” Musk said.
Musk added there are hundreds of millions of posts on any given day, and among those posts, he said some will be bad.
Netanyahu said regardless of what is or isn’t free speech, openly condemning hatred is essential.
“The vile things that are said, I don’t care if they come from the hard left or from the hard right, or white supremacist or, I don’t know, the ultra progressives, for me that is something that I condemn and I that it is important to,” Netanyahu said.
The two went on to agree that combating hate speech by preventing the use of bots to amplify antisemitic views would help. Musk added that adding a small monthly cost to use X would make using bots to boost hate speech harder.
About 200 protesters gathered outside of the Tesla factory in Fremont, CA, as the two met, against the Israeli government’s judicial remodeling. Netanyahu said he is trying to prevent political overreach by limiting the powers of Israel’s supreme court.
The other side argues this shift only removes oversight and encourages corruption. Netanyahu noted that he will focus on this issue when he returns to Israel.
