Elon Musk claims that George Soros “hates humanity”. Anti-Defamation League says Musk’s attacks ‘will embolden extremists’

New York (CNN) Elon Musk He launched a baseless Twitter attack on George Soros, a frequent target of anti-Semitic conspiracy theories, accusing the financier of hating humanity days after Soros revealed he had sold a modest stake in Tesla.

While Musk’s remarks do not refer to the billionaire’s ethnicity, Musk has been criticized for dangerous rhetoric that could fuel further attacks on Soros.

in tweet Late Monday, Musk compared him to X-Men villain Magneto, who like Soros was a Holocaust survivor, according to the character’s backstory in comics. When a Twitter user defended Soros as well-intentioned, criticizing those who disagree with his politics, Musk replied“You assume it’s good intentions. It’s not. He wants to erode the fabric of civilization. Soros hates humanity.”

Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, a right-wing civil rights group that tracks and combats incidents of antisemitism, criticized Musk’s comment and said it would “embolden extremists”.

Greenblatt: “Soros is often endorsed by the far right, using anti-Semitic tropes, as the source of the world’s problems.” chirp. “To see Elon Musk, no matter his intent, fuel this segment—comparing him to a Jewish supervillain, claiming that Soros hates humanity—is not only sad, it’s dangerous: He would embolden extremists who are already plotting anti-Jewish plots and have, as a result, attempted Attacking Soros and the Jewish Communities”.

In response to Greenblatt’s tweet, Musk responded with his own tweets. In one of them, Musk said, “Stop defaming me.” In the second, it is He said “ADL should only drop the ‘a'”

In an interview on CNBC following Tuesday’s Tesla shareholder meeting, Musk defended Soros’ tweets, including his claim that Soros hates humanity, saying banner. Musk said so He has the right to tweet his opinions, even if he makes Twitter’s biggest source of income run away. He said he “didn’t care” if his controversial tweets angered Tesla customers or Twitter advertisers.

“I’ll say what I want to say, and if the consequence of that is losing money, then so be it,” Musk said in the interview.

Musk has often tweeted inflammatory comments, including those supporting 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’s advertising director Linda Yaccarino would replace him as CEO of Twitter.

Soros, 92, is a An old goal for the right winger Conspiracy theories and antisemitism. He is a prominent contributor to Democratic candidates and liberal causes. Open Secrets, which tracks political contributions, shows he contributed $50 million to the Democracy PAC II Superpac in November, and $125 million in the fall of 2022.

He is also a founder and major contributor to the Open Society Foundations, with the stated goal of working for justice, democratic governance, and human rights. It has infuriated some authoritarian regimes, including the regime Victor Urban, Soros’ native Prime Minister of Hungary. Orban is an ally Russian President Vladimir Putinaccused of his authoritarian movements in Hungary.

Attacks on Soros have increased in recent years along with a broader increase in Incidents of anti-Semitic attacks. The Anti-Defamation League said that the United States antisemitic incidents reached its highest level last year since the group began recording in 1979.

some Right-wing influencers In the US it has embraced authoritarian leaders abroad whom Soros, like Orban, opposed. Former President Donald Trump and many Republicans who He attacked New York District Attorney Alvin Bragg To bring criminal charges against Trump, he was quick to point out that Bragg had his campaign support from Soros.

Musk has come under fire since taking over Twitter for allowing Nazi sympathizers back on the social media platform as part of a broader mass unbanning of accounts previously suspended over his stated policy of supporting “free speech”. Among those allowed to return to Twitter was Andrew Anglina self-proclaimed white supremacist founded the neo-Nazi website The Daily Stormer.

Studies conducted by the ADL and the Center for Combating Digital Hate found that volume Hate speech on Twitter It has grown exponentially under Musk’s direction. Musk called the reports from both monitoring groups “totally false,” claiming that “hate speech impressions,” or the number of times a hate speech tweet was seen, “continues to drop” since the early days of his ownership of the company when the platform saw a sharp rise in traffic. Hate speech designed to test Musk’s tolerance.

Musk, who has nearly 140 million followers on Twitter, has repeatedly amplified right-wing metaphors and some Conspiracy theories on Twitter, including a baseless allegation about the violent attack on Paul Pelosi, husband of former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. (Musk later deleted his tweet.) Musk has also taken personal shots of people he disagrees with or those who have criticized his companies.

Soros’ investment in Tesla was modest in terms of his total investment portfolio. Filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission show he purchased 89,600 modified shares split in the second quarter of 2022, holding them through the third quarter before purchasing an additional 242,000 shares in the last three months of 2022. But he sold his entire stake sometime in the first three months. From this year, according to the last file he submitted last week.

In fact Musk sold much more than that Tesla (TSLA) He shares himself in recent months as he dealt with mounting losses at Twitter, which he bought in October. is recently It sold 22 million shares in December. But he’s still Tesla’s largest shareholder to date.

— CNN’s Allison Morrow and Oliver Darcy contributed to this report.