New York (CNN) Elon Musk George Soros launched an unfounded Twitter attack on Soros, a frequent target of anti-Semitic conspiracy theories, accusing the financier of hating humanity just days after Soros revealed a small stake in Tesla.
While Musk’s comments did not specify the billionaire philanthropist’s race, Musk has been criticized for dangerous rhetoric that could fuel further attacks on Soros.
A Tweet Later Monday, Musk compared him to X-Men villain Magneto, who, like Sorus, survived the Holocaust, according to the comics’ backstory for the character. While one Twitter user defended Soros as well-intentioned, he was criticized by those who disagreed with his politics. Musk replied“You assume those are good intentions. They’re not. He wants to destroy the fabric of civilization. Soros hates humanity.”
Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, a civil rights group that monitors and combats incidents of anti-Semitism, criticized Musk’s comment, saying it would “embolden extremists.”
“Soros is often held up by the far right, using antisemitic tropes as evidence of the world’s problems,” Greenblatt He tweeted that. “Seeing Elon Musk, regardless of his intentions, feeding this segment — likening him to a Jewish overseer and saying Soros ‘hates humanity’ — is not only sad, it’s dangerous: It will embolden extremists who are already plotting anti-Semitism. As a result, Soros has sought to attack Jewish communities. .”
In response to Greenblatt’s tweet, Musk responded with a tweet of his own. In one, Musk said, “Hey stop insulting me.” Second, he said “ADL should just drop the ‘A’.”
In an interview on CNBC following Tesla’s shareholder meeting on Tuesday, Musk defended his tweets about Soros, including his claim that Soros hates humanity. His opinion. Musk said Despite being Twitter’s biggest source of income, he has the right to tweet his opinions. He said he doesn’t care if his controversial tweets draw the ire of Tesla customers or Twitter advertisers.
“I’ll say what I want to say, and if it results in losing money, so be it,” Musk said in the interview.
Musk has tweeted frequently, including comments that support conspiracy theories.
Twitter has seen a sharp decline in ad revenue since Musk took over the company last year. Last week, Musk announced that NBCUniversal advertising chief Linda Yaccarino would replace him as Twitter’s CEO.
92-year-old Soros, A A long-term goal of the right wing Conspiracy theorists and antisemites. He is a major contributor to Democratic candidates and liberal causes. Open Secrets, which tracks political contributions, shows he contributed $50 million to the Democratic PAC II SuperPac in November and $125 million in the fall of 2022.
He is also the founder and major contributor to the Open Society Foundations, which aims to work for justice, democratic governance and human rights. This has raised the ire of some authoritarian regimes, including Victor Orban, Prime Minister of Soros’ home country of Hungary. Orban is an ally Russian President Vladimir PutinHis own dictatorial moves in Hungary were to blame.
Attacks on Soros have increased in recent years Incidents of antisemitic attacks. The ADL said that incidents of American anti-Semitism reached their highest level It’s been a year since the group started recording them in 1979.
Some Right-wing influencers America has embraced foreign dictators like Orbán, opposed by Soros. Former President Donald Trump and many other Republicans New York District Attorney Alvin Bragg was attacked Bragg was quick to point out that he received campaign support from Soros for bringing criminal charges against Trump.
Musk has come under fire since taking over Twitter for allowing Nazi sympathizers to return to the social media platform as part of a broader ban on accounts previously suspended because of its policy of supporting “free speech.” One of those allowed back on Twitter Andrew AnglinA self-confessed white supremacist who founded the neo-Nazi website The Daily Stormer.
Studies by the ADL and the Center Against Digital Hate found that the scale Hate speech on Twitter has grown dramatically under Musk’s stewardship. Musk called reports from two watchdog groups “absolutely false” that the number of times a tweet containing “hate speech” or tweets containing hate speech was viewed, “continually rejects” an increase in hate speech designed to test Musk’s tolerance on stage.
Musk, who has nearly 140 million Twitter followers, has often amplified right-wing tropes and then some. Conspiracy theories on Twitter, including an unsubstantiated claim surrounding a violent attack on former Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband, Paul Pelosi. (Musk later deleted his tweet.) Musk also took personal shots at those who disagreed with him or criticized his companies.
Soros’ investment in Tesla is modest relative to his overall investment portfolio. He bought 89,600 split shares in the second quarter of 2022 and held them in the third quarter before buying an additional 242,000 shares in the final three months of 2022, filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission show. In the first three months of this year, according to the latest report he filed last week.
Musk was actually oversold Tesla (D.S.L.A) He has shared himself in recent months dealing with mounting losses at Twitter, which he bought in October. He is very recently 22 million shares sold In December. But he is still Tesla’s largest shareholder.
— CNN’s Alison Morrow and Oliver Darcy contributed to this report.
