Twitter does not act against antisemitism, the Foreign Ministry said on Twitter on Tuesday.
The remarks came after Twitter CEO Elon Musk tweeted about another controversial billionaire, George Soros, saying he reminds him of Magneto, the villain from X-Men who, like Soros, survived the Holocaust.
Soros “wants to erode the very fabric of civilization,” Musk said. “Soros hates humanity.”
Soros reminds me of Magneto
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 16, 2023
“The Jews” then became a trending topic on Twitter.
Musk’s tweet “smelled of antisemitism...[and] immediately brought a flood of antisemitic conspiracy theories,” the Foreign Ministry said.
“Unfortunately, Twitter does nothing to address this problem,” Foreign Ministry Director of the Digital Diplomacy David Saranga tweeted.
ADL response to antisemitism on Twitter
Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt tweeted that “Soros often is held up by the far-right, using antisemitic tropes, as the source of the world’s problems.
Elon Musk, regardless of his intent, feeds this segment – comparing him to a Jewish supervillain, claiming Soros ‘hates humanity’ – is not just distressing, it’s dangerous: it will embolden extremists who already contrive anti-Jewish conspiracies and have tried to attack Soros and Jewish communities as a result.”
Since buying Twitter last year and sharply reducing its staff, Musk has faced criticism for not monitoring and taking action against hate on the social media site.
The ADL published a report last week on Twitter six months after Musk purchased it, pointing to the reinstatement of the accounts of hate groups, neo-Nazis and others, as well as a looser policy in responding to hate speech as opposed to overt threats of violence.
Soros is one of the leading donors to the Democratic Party, often contributing to candidates on the party’s Left flank. In recent years, he has focused on criminal justice reform, supporting progressive district attorneys who are more hesitant to prosecute criminals for certain crimes and try to minimize prison sentences.
In Israel, Soros’s Open Society Foundation donated to organizations accusing Israel of human rights violations and war crimes, such as Breaking the Silence and Adalah. In a 2016 leak of OSF emails, staffers said they sought to weaken ties between Israel and the EU and sow doubt about Israeli democracy.