Elon Musk continues to make more enemies than friends as the CEO of Twitter/X, threatening to sue the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) over the social media platform’s lost revenue from advertisers.
It’s no secret that X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, has been struggling since Musk took over. From lost ad revenue to major glitches, the platform has certainly seen better days.
Now, Musk is blaming some of those problems on the ADL for reporting that X is now inundated with hate speech, which honestly is pretty hard to argue with.
Musk Threatens Lawsuit Against ADL
Announced — where else — on X, Musk threatened to sue the ADL for defamation, naturally noting the irony of the situation with this patented attempt at being funny.
“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!” – Elon Musk in a post
The ADL responded to comments by stating they don’t reply to legal threats, but they did acknowledge the renewed attacks on the organization, as well as the #BanALD hashtag that has now started trending on X.
Why Does Musk Want to Sue the ADL?
Over the last few months, Elon Musk has made some notable changes to X. The most significant change in the eyes of the ADL is that the platform reinstated a wide range of permanently banned accounts for hate speech and antisemitism. Subsequently, the organization published reports noting that the platform is allowing hate speech to proliferate unchecked.
This report, as well as general pressure from the ADL, has made ad revenue for X plummet, which is grounds for this lawsuit, at least according to Elon Musk.
“Our US advertising revenue is still down 60%, primarily due to pressure on advertisers by ADL (that’s what advertisers tell us), so they almost succeeded in killing X/Twitter!” – Elon Musk in a post
This isn’t the first time Musk has taken issue with independent organizations calling out X for hate speech. In fact, Musk already launched a lawsuit against the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) last month for the exact same thing.
Is Twitter Going Down?
Let’s be honest, it’s not looking good for the platform formerly known as Twitter. For starters, hemorrhaging ad revenue alone is enough to take down any company, let alone one that so heavily relies on that income to keep operating.
As a result, the company is currently valued at only $4 billion, compared to the $44 billion it was purchased for by Musk in October 2022.
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That’s not all, though. Musk has also taken on dozens of lawsuits in pursuit of a profitable platform, and the company has shirked a wide range of responsibilities, including paying rent and not erecting illegal signs on their roof.
Suffice to say, the company is floundering with little sign of recovery, and with even Musk admitting the platform may fail, the days may be numbered for X.
