Let’s face it….
Elton Musk made a BIG mistake in buying the Twitter Social network….
Firing most of the staff didn’t help…..
Seeming to let the crazies post on the site either….
Charging people to post on a free site seems to not have made him more $$$$.
Finally?
Changing the name of the place to ‘X’ hasn’t stopped people from still calling it Twitter….
Now?
The guy from South Africa , who is less richer, has threated to sue the Anti-Defamation League (ADL)…
Saying they have cost Twitter a drop in ad revenue …
Elon Musk threatened to sue the Anti-Defamation League on Monday after blaming the nonprofit for an advertising revenue slump on X since he led a takeover of the platform formerly known as Twitter.
Driving the news: Musk accused the ADL in a post on X of “trying to kill this platform by falsely accusing it & me of being anti-Semitic” after it reported a spike in hate speech on the platform following the reinstatement of banned accounts there.
- The billionaire said that U.S. advertising revenue “is still down 60%, primarily due to pressure on advertisers primarily due to pressure on advertisers by @ADL (that’s what advertisers tell us), so they almost succeeded in killing X/Twitter!”
- Musk said in another post before threatening to sue the ADL that he’s “pro free speech, but against anti-Semitism of any kind.”
The big picture: The Anti-Defamation League published a report in May that found over 5,000 examples from February of “virulent antisemitism from 2,173 accounts” on Twitter after accounts were reinstated under free speech advocate Musk’s direction.
- On Saturday, Musk responded to a right-wing campaign to ban the ADL on X, saying: “Perhaps we should run a poll on this?”
Meanwhile, X is suing the Center for Countering Digital Hate, accusing the nonprofit of making “false” claims after it found bigoted speech had surged on the platform since he led the takeover of the site in October.
What they’re saying: An ADL spokesperson said in an emailed statement that the nonprofit doesn’t comment on legal threats as a matter of policy, but addressed the push to remove the group from X.
- “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,” the spokesperson said…..
Facebook is facing a advertising boycott…
800 Compnaies want Facebook to police hate mail…
The boycott has emerged as a crucial test for a company that has become a key player in American politics simply because of what it hosts and promotes on its site, and which until recently had been vocally doubling down on its commitment to keeping an open platform for users’ speech.
It is also a behind-the-scenes triumph for a novel coalition of civil rights groups and other advocacy organizations — the architects of the #StopHateForProfit campaign that many of the boycotting companies have signed on to.
Interviews with leaders of the nine coalition partners reveal how the groups spun up a boycott idea in a matter of days, responding to the George Floyd protests late this spring and using public energy to join together several long-simmering, frustrated efforts to hold Facebook to account for its content. They lobbied corporate leaders in private and, in some cases, shamed companies on social media to join the effort.
“[Facebook] is a breeding ground for racial hate groups,” says Derrick Johnson, president of the NAACP, one of the groups that made up the coalition. Referring to Zuckerberg, he said, “You can’t reason with the guy.”
In short order, the coalition has emerged as perhaps Facebook’s most formidable antagonist, when little else — not Congress, not European regulators, not public declarations by celebrities that they were deleting their Facebook accounts — has had much effect on how the site operates. And their campaign might offer a blueprint for how activist groups can tackle a modern tech giant: fusing novel pressure tactics with the weight of legacy civil rights groups…
image…An effigy of Elon Musk is seen on a mobile device with the X and Twitter logos in the background. Photo: Jaap Arriens/NurPhoto via Getty