Elon Musk is suing the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), an organisation that fights antisemitism for falsely accusing him and X Corp (formerly Twitter) of being antisemitic.
The tech billionaire also blamed ADL for X’s falling advertising revenue in the US.
“To clear our platform’s name on the matter of anti-Semitism, it looks like we have no choice but to file a defamation lawsuit against the Anti-Defamation League … oh the irony!” Musk posted late on Monday.
“Our US advertising revenue is still down 60 per cent, primarily due to pressure on advertisers by ADL (that’s what advertisers tell us), so they almost succeeded in killing X/Twitter!” the X owner added.
The series of posts came as Musk has been accused of liking posts with the hashtag #BanTheADL, which was trending on X last week.
The ADL has said it had a productive conversation with X CEO Linda Yaccarino about fighting hate speech on the platform.
“Since the acquisition, The @ADL has been trying to kill this platform by falsely accusing it & me of being anti-Semitic,” Musk posted.
Antisemitism has been a problem on Twitter long before Musk acquired the platform in October last year for $44 billion.
Musk himself has been accused of invoking antisemitic tropes and conspiracy theories by targeting Jewish billionaire George Soros and engaging with antisemitic content on X.
On Sunday, days after boosting an antisemitic campaign to ban ADL from X, the “free-speech absolutist” Musk proposed polling the social media platform’s users on booting the civil rights advocacy group from the platform.
“The ADL has done a lot of good work in prior decades, but has been overzealous in recent years & hijacked by the woke mind virus,” Musk said.