Elon Musk threatens to sue ADL for billions, blaming Jewish group for lost revenue

Elon Musk threatens to sue the Anti-Defamation League for up to $22 billion as he joined a growing number of white supremacists and trolls in posting invective about the group.

The legal threat of indeterminate seriousness — Musk frequently does not follow through on his stated intentions, although he sometimes does — came after Musk joined a white supremacist’s anti-ADL campaign on X, the platform Musk owns and renamed from Twitter.

Over the last several days, Musk tweeted at least 25 times about the ADL or related topics. Several times, he blamed the Jewish anti-bigotry group for a 60% drop in advertising revenue on the platform and said he would seek redress in court.

Musk disputes that he’s been responsible for a rise in antisemitism on X and suggests that the company would file a defamation suit against the ADL. “Since the acquisition, The @ADL has been trying to kill this platform by falsely accusing it & me of being anti-Semitic,” he writes in one post.

“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!” he writes in another post on Monday evening. “In our case, they would potentially be on the hook for destroying half the value of the company, so roughly $22 billion.”

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 (@elonmusk) September 4, 2023

In another post on Monday, he gives a lower figure: “Based on what we’ve heard from advertisers, ADL seems to be responsible for most of our revenue loss. Giving them maximum benefit of the doubt, I don’t see any scenario where they’re responsible for less than 10% of the value destruction, so ~$4 billion.”