Elon Musk tours site of Hamas attack with Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu
None of the prime minister’s public statements addressed charges of rampant antisemitism on Musk’s social media outlet.
Musk and Netanyahu also “held an extended meeting on the security aspects of artificial intelligence,” a statement from the Israeli prime minister’s office said.
“Senior security establishment officials in the fields of artificial intelligence and cyber participated in the meeting.”
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The American tycoon was also set to meet Israel’s President Isaac Herzog during his visit to the country.
Herzog would address “the need to act to combat rising antisemitism online”, the office of Israel’s figurehead president said Sunday.
Musk has come under fire over what critics say is a proliferation of hate speech on X since his takeover of the social media site in October 2022.
He has also been accused by the White House of “abhorrent promotion” of antisemitism after endorsing a conspiracy theory seen as accusing Jews of trying to weaken white majorities.
Herzog’s office said the meeting would be joined by “representatives of families of hostages held by Hamas, who will speak about the horrors of the Hamas terror attack on October 7, and of the ongoing pain and uncertainty for those held captive”.
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Israel bombarded the Gaza strip for weeks and launched a ground assault in response to the attacks, before a four-day ceasefire took effect on November 24.
In September, Netanyahu urged Musk “to stop not only antisemitism, or rolling it back as best you can, but any collective hatred” on X.
Musk, the world’s richest person, said while his platform could not stop all hate speech before it was posted, he was “generally against attacking any group, no matter who it is”.
X is currently suing non-profit Media Matters on the grounds that it has driven away advertisers by portraying the site as rife with antisemitism content.
Musk has also threatened to file suit against the Anti-Defamation League, a Jewish advocacy group, over its claims that problematic and racist speech has soared on the site since he completed his US$44-billion takeover.