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Elon Musk on Monday boosted the harmful, years-old “Pizzagate” conspiracy idea in a submit on X, the platform previously generally known as Twitter, simply days after being roundly criticized and facing an advertiser exodus following his embrace of an antisemitic conspiracy idea.
In a submit Monday, an X person tried to hyperlink the founding father of Media Issues — the progressive media watchdog that final week recognized adverts for main manufacturers operating alongside pro-Nazi content material on X — to the proprietor of the “Pizzagate restaurant.” Musk replied: “Bizarre.” By replying, Musk known as the submit to the eye of his greater than 160 million followers on X.
Pizzagate is an anti-Hillary Clinton conspiracy idea that spun up on 4chan, Reddit, Twitter and different platforms within the closing days earlier than the 2016 US presidential election. Believers imagined a pedophilia ring supposedly being run out of a Washington, DC pizza store that concerned Clinton and different Democrats.
The wildly false claims had been behind self-appointed “investigator” Edgar Maddison Welch’s choice in December of that 12 months to fireside an assault rifle contained in the restaurant. (Nobody was damage, and Welch later pleaded responsible and was sentenced to 4 years in jail.)
It’s simply the most recent conspiracy idea Musk has drawn consideration to utilizing X. Musk final week agreed with an antisemitic post on his social media platform X, endorsing the declare that Jewish communities push “hatred towards Whites.” Musk final 12 months additionally gave credence to a fringe conspiracy theory in regards to the violent assault on Paul Pelosi, the husband of former Home Speaker Nancy Pelosi, by posting a hyperlink to an article filled with baseless claims about Paul Pelosi.
Musk final week confronted backlash from the White Home and others for partaking with an antisemitic conspiracy idea.
“It’s unacceptable to repeat the hideous lie behind probably the most deadly act of Antisemitism in American historical past at any time, not to mention one month after the deadliest day for the Jewish individuals because the Holocaust,” White Home spokesperson Andrew Bates mentioned in an announcement to CNN.
On Friday, no less than a half dozen main advertisers, together with media giants Disney, Paramount and NBCUniversal, halted their spending on X. IBM additionally suspended promoting on the platform after the Media Issues report confirmed its advert appeared alongside pro-Nazi content material.
Musk has pushed again at concept that he’s antisemitic. “Nothing could possibly be farther from the reality,” he mentioned in a submit Sunday. Musk’s firm has additionally claimed that Media Issues’ report was deceptive and that it has taken steps to fight antisemitism and discrimination on the platform. X on Monday sued Media Matters, accusing it of distorting how possible it’s for adverts to seem beside extremist content material on X.
Nonetheless, X has not eliminated the pro-Nazi accounts talked about in Media Issues’ report, as an alternative saying that their posts had little engagement and that they might not be eligible for monetization.
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