Elon Musk sues Media Matters for reports of advertisers dropping Twitter/X due to antisemitism

Huffington Post

-Elon Musk posted and supported antisemitic rhetoric (though he supports Israel... discussion on what's going on there in my other thread)

-Advertisers, including Apple, NBC Comcast (where Linda Yaccarino used to work), Disney, Warner Bros, and most recently, Ubisoft dropped ads on the site.

-Media Matters reported on the advertisers dropping

-Elon threatens a "thermonuclear lawsuit", which he filed in Texas

-Speaking of Texas, AG Ken Paxton launches his own investigation into Media Matters.

...

Yeah, I think Mehdi Hasan said it best. Because... YIKES! This is REALLY not good!

Media matters is absolute trash, they deserve everything coming to them

@sargentd: Why?

I haven't seen him post anything directly, but he def follows and reposts them.

Tucker Carlson, Ian Miles Chong etc...

And I just generally, don't like Elon Musk. So **** him.

fake news.

there can't possibly be white supremacist and antisemitic content on twitter.

it is a bastion of enlightenment, diversity, understanding and civility.

Elon Musk doesnt care about Free Speech.

He only wields it as a shield to protect himself. But otherwise he gladly tries to suppress dissenting voices.

@nintendoboy16: I don't understand this suit. Musk has said that the images MM posted of their claims were legit. It sounds like he objects to the methods used to gather them (following antisemitic accounts, and then getting ads next to their content), but that just sounds like verification of MM's claims. What am I missing?

You expect Elon to be smart? There is a reason this is a meme (and thankfully, Matt Groening and co regret having him on The Simpsons)

MM proves the opposite of what EM claims.

Exactly. He didn't even want to buy Twitter, his big mouth and posturing got him into it.

Now he basically just uses it for ego. Literally all it is, a toy to stroke himself. That and promote right-wing shit.

Even if you're actually like, right-wing, he's very clearly not a free-speech absolutist.

Elon made a 100% valid point and the leftwing media do what they always do and just called him a racist. They deserve what's coming.

@silentchief: What was his valid point?

Look into the methology MM used to get it to appear that way.

He made no valid point.

He was just being racist. And rather than being held accountable, he tries to suppress those whose job it is to hold people in power accountable.

That is a massive red flag right there, blatant authoritarianism.

Unless they used Photoshop or some other image manipulation program, that they could get this result at all puts them in the clear and should rightfully scare away advertisers. "No, no, it's OK. Your ad will run adjacent to neo Nazis only .1% of the time" is not a successfully pitch to ad buyers.

Media Matters puposely manipulated the algorithm to write a bogus story to try an hurt the platform X by trying to get advertisers to pull off the platform.

If you create an account, purposely look for fringe posts saying hateful things to where that's the only thing you follow, then keep tapping the refresh button to try and trick the platform in showing you an ad, that's fradulant, then write a story to try and pressure advertisers to pull off the platform thats fraud. Its not an accurate representation of the platform. Ceo of X is claiming they can see that the only person who even saw the bad post was the account made by media matters themselves... and X can see who sees what so if they bring the receipts to court it's not going to look good for media matters.

This is them manipulating the platform to write fraulant stories to try and hurt the platform financially. X is wise to sue, thats not proper journalism. This is lying to hurt a company financially over politics.

There are questions as well if there is coordination by the federal government and media matters to push such stories.

Also people have been trying to replicate what media matters supposedly did to get an ad to show up on hateful posts to no avail. It's very much possible media matters never actually even had an ad show up near such posts but wrote the story anyway.

What is this attempt at gaslighting?

We all saw what happened, we can verify for ourselves that Elon Musk really did send that reply to that post.

You are conflating 2 different stories. I'm purposely talking about how media matters is mis representing the platform in thier story. Never did I say Elon didn't respond to some post...

Another billionaire for the right to praise and apologize for their atrocious behavior. What is wrong with people that vote republican? These billionaires don't give a shit about you. In fact, they want policy that helps them at your expense.

For the uninitiated, here's the tweet in question:

Full context first followed by expanded middle tweet:

This is my biggest issue with modern America: our democracy no longer serves the people and greater good, but instead has become slave to special interests that represent a very vocal minority (Christian nationalists, far-right authoritarians, anit-government groups, etc), and the uber-wealthy libertarians (like Musk).

Even if that were true, this is not how it should happen.

I think going to court where the evidence can be shown to discuss if they lied...to create a bogus story... to hurt the platform financially..

Yeah, court seems like the best way to go about it. This is Exactly how it should happen actually.

Not really misrepresenting. This is a frivolous lawsuit from Musk.

They gamed the system by...... using it? By following right wing accounts and then scrolling?

@mattbbpl: Not really sure if sharing the contents of that tweet are a good idea.

But the fact that someone seems to be defending what musk said is really concerning.

@sargentd: the methodology kinda doesn't matter though. twitter owns their software and is responsible for how it behaves. if it behaves poorly, even under the stimulus of "abnormal" behavior, they're still responsible for the outcome.

if boeing for example had flight control software that would shut an airplane's engines down mid-flight because a pilot pressed 4 buttons at the same time that the software guys never thought anyone would press simultaneously, it's still a problem that needs correction.

it's up to be ad buyers to decide if they want to be associated w/ twitter or not, but it's their decision.

hey, racists deserve to be spammed by ads too though. what was twitter supposed to do?

The fact that people in this thread are defending it as "100 percent valid" means it 100 percent needs shared. This stuff thrives in darkness.

Besides, it's publicly available on a widely used platform with content that meets that's platforms guidelines and which was publicly affirmed by its owner. It's completely innocent, right?

That is "if" even media matters is being honest in being able to trick the algorithm into showing ads next to such post.

People have been trying to replicate the process with no results.

It's possible Media Matters never actually tricked the algorithm.

If so it's a straight up fraudulant story to try to hurt the platform financially.

And even if they did it's a slimey tactic in trying to misrepresent the platform into doing something negative and then claiming it's the norm.

It is concerning, but do they see it that way?

I imagine they see it more of an example of "I don't agree with what you say but I defend your right to say it".

I think you can take that principle too far, though.

Both Media Matters and X will have thier day in court to settle it.

Tricky where to draw the line I suppose.

Personally I can tolerate any speech because at the end of the day I see it as just words. Even if I 100% disagree with something someone said, even if it offends me to my core, I don't believe in gagging anyone from speaking. But I can also be real about it and understand not everyone feels the same about it as me. Different people have different tolerances when it comes to speech.

And as far as the tweet which Elon replied too.. I don't even find it scandalous or even close to being offensive.

tbh i think people are pretty soft if they are that triggered by that tweet. But hey... that's just my opinion. Does anyone here actually believe its that bad of a statement where our eyes must be shielded from it?

or is this just people who have a hate boner for Elon and are pretending to be outraged cus they hate that guy lol..

To quote: "

Elon made a 100% valid point and the leftwing media do what they always do and just called him a racist. They deserve what's coming."

cup the only one with integrity and just being honest about not liking the guy

what part of this is the most offensive part to you? genuinely curious of what your reason is for being so offended.

Also is the tweet referring to Muslim immigrants coming into Israel? cus that's how I'm reading it.

@sargentd: Should I not find the assertions that "Jews push hatred against white people," and "Jews are flooding the country with minorities," offensive?

@Maroxad: Case in point, man. Case in point.

The fact that some of these people seem to be defending blatant anti-semitism is deeply concerning.

Taking more issues with Media Matters for exposing what elon musk said, than the indefensible things actually said is one massive red flag.

Holy ****

@sargentd: As for which country the tweet was about, we don't have the context for it. The only context given was that the post was replying to another Tweet saying, "For those who believe Hitler was right, say it to our faces."

Is that better or worse?

Sure you can be offended by it, but why do you want it to be censored.

I know where the statement is coming from. Ill try to break it down for you (respectfully). Its referring to how many in the Jewish community have embraced the idea of white privilege, that white people are oppressor's, that white people are and were evil colonists. That white people control the world through systematic oppression.

You ever heard of any concepts like that said about white people?

I have.

Now... personally I think identity politics overall are for losers. Idgaf what your race is and its meaningless to me.

But I have seen those types of narratives being pushed about white people with little to no pushback from many for probably about the last 10 years or so. Really got popular during the Ferguson riots when I was starting my freshman year in college and just kind of took off as a normal ideology (especially with those who lean left politically).

and I do see that many in the Jewish community set themselves apart from whites in regards to this concept of "systematic oppressions". As if it can only be white people that could systematically influence the world is laughable to me and I don't even believe in this BS leftist identity politics theory lol...

The tweet doesnt say "Jews are flooding their country with minorities" by the way..

It says the minorites coming into their country dont like the jews, probably because they see them as "oppressors"

Much how many on the left see whites as "oppressors" , you know? like they are responsible for some sort of "systematic oppresion". Kind of the same narrative that's been said about whites for a while now.

This has only been amplified too with the recent war between Palestine and Israel...

Sorry for the rant.. But I'm just trying to put some perspective out there on how I'm reading this "tweet".

@sargentd: You're explaining to us why a guy who responded to, "For those who believe Hitler was right, say it to our faces," was right in saying that Jews push hatred against white people.

Is that your final answer?

@mattbbpl: so your not going to respond to anything I said.. alright then..

@sargentd: Was that not a response? Or were you expecting me to entertain the idea that "Jews push hatred against white people" as a valid point?

@mattbbpl: your non response without any proper counter tells me all I need to know

What did you expect me to counter? I see three main points:

1) Why do you want it censored?

No one is calling for censorship. Advertisers are bailing, exercising their own free speech.

2) Jews DO promote hatred of white people.

I'm not going to entertain this lunacy. Just leave it up there as a demonstration of your true colors.

3) It doesn't say Jews are flooding the country, just that the minorities flooding the country hate them.

The post says that Jews support flooding the country with minorities. My bad, lol.

This is the original flavor of the Great Replacement conspiracy theory, and I'm shocked you are unabashedly supporting it with no shame.

@mattbbpl: not going to go back in forth with you, you don't engage in good faith

@sargentd: Glenn Greenwald? That dude murdered his credibility by his fascist apologia.

That made me chuckle lol

Thanks