X owner Elon Musk visited Israel and held a meeting with top Israeli leaders, including President Isaac Herzog, on Monday.
The tech mogul visited a Kibbutz community that was attacked by Hamas militants on October 7 this year.
It needs to be noted that Musk is currently under fire for allegedly letting anti-semitic content flourish on Twitter (now called X). The visit comes in the backdrop of Israel and Hamas extending a ceasefire for two more days.
He also held a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that was live-streamed on X. "It was jarring to see the scene of the massacre," said Musk during the conversation.
The two spoke at length on various issues, including the ongoing Israel-Hamas war. Netanyahu, who had urged Musk to reduce anti-Semitic content on X in a September meeting, asked him to help build a better future.
In September, Netanyahu urged Musk "to stop not only anti-Semitism, or rolling it back as best you can, but any collective hatred" on X.
Netanyahu later took him on a tour of the Gaza Strip and posted pictures of himself and Musk on X.
סיירתי עם אילון מאסק בקיבוץ כפר עזה כדי להראות לו מקרוב את הפשעים נגד האנושות שביצע חמאס @elonmusk
— Benjamin Netanyahu - בנימין נתניהו (@netanyahu) November 27, 2023
(צילום: עמוס בן גרשום, לע״מ) pic.twitter.com/aipX6ryv7T
In the images, Musk could be seen wearing a protective vest and being escorted by a number of security personnel.
"I toured Kibbutz Kfar Gaza with Elon Musk to show him up close the crimes against humanity committed by Hamas," Netanyahu wrote. He also showed Musk the footage of the October 7 attack from bodycams, CCTV, and other sources.
During the conversation with the Israeli prime minister, Musk called for an end to "murderous propaganda".
In a meeting President @Isaac_Herzog held with @ElonMusk & families of hostages, Rachel showed Elon a video of her son Hersh, badly injured, being abducted by Hamas. Malki, father of another hostage, Omer, presented Elon with a dog-tag inscribed “our hearts are hostage in Gaza”. pic.twitter.com/BC2SePazQV
— Office of the President of Israel (@IsraelPresident) November 27, 2023
"Those that are intent on murder must be neutralised," Musk said. "The propaganda must stop that is training people to be murderers in the future. And then, making Gaza prosperous. And if that happens, I think it will be a good future."
Netanyahu said: "I hope you will be involved. And the fact that you came here, I think, speaks volumes to your commitment to try to secure a better future."
The big picture:
Musk has been under immense pressure after several reports claimed that there has been a significant increase in anti-Semitic content on X since he bought the platform in October last year.
Earlier this year, an analysis conducted by tech firm CASM Technology and the Institute for Strategic Dialogue revealed that anti-Semitic tweets have more than doubled since Elon Musk took over Twitter last year.
The researchers analysed over a million tweets with the help of various tech tools for "plausibly anti-Semitic" tweets between June 2022 and February 2023. The findings, which have not been peer-reviewed, revealed a 105% increase in the number of such tweets from October 27 to February 9, 2023.
"In all, a total of 325,739 tweets from 146,516 accounts were labelled as 'plausibly antisemitic' over the course of our study, stretching from June 1, 2022, to February 9, 2023," per the report.
Musk has even filed a lawsuit against media watchdog Media Matters for America over its report, which accused X of allowing anti-Semitic posts to appear next to ads.
The lawsuit filed by Musk on Monday claims that Media Matters "manipulated" data to destroy the platform, adding that it was done to drive advertisers away from X.
The Media Matters report claimed that the ads on X were shown next to pro-Nazi posts. The report cited several examples to back their analysis.
In one example, an ad for Apple's Mac computers was shown alongside a post that claimed Hitler and the Nazis represented a "spiritual awakening".
Brands like Apple, IBM, Disney, and Comcast paused their ads on X after the report came to light.
This is not the first time that Musk has been involved in a legal battle over an alleged increase in hate speech on X since he bought the platform last year. Earlier in August, the tech billionaire filed a lawsuit against the Center for Countering Digital Hate after its report claimed that X has indeed seen a rise in hate speech.
