House Democrats Are Going After Elon Musk and X Over Concerns of Antisemitism

As many pointed out, Raskin voted against censuring Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), a member of the Squad who has spread falsehoods against Israel, and even defended the use of a genocidal term, "from the river to the sea." In fact, as we covered at the time of the vote earlier this month, Raskin led the debate in defending Tlaib hours before the House ultimately censured the congresswoman via a bipartisan vote.

You voted against censuring Tlaib so why should anybody listen to you on this subject? https://t.co/ZsHsqRXwwc

— Ilya Shapiro (@ishapiro) November 21, 2023

You voted against censuring Tlaib, who still has her tweet falsely blaming the hospital bombing on Israel. She’s a Hamasnik that you’ve enabled. You are the opposite of an authority on antisemitism. Cowardly. https://t.co/1407AvI8Xc

— Erielle Davidson (@politicalelle) November 21, 2023

While Goldman did vote to censure Tlaib, he's faced heavy criticism as well. During Sunday's edition of "Inside With Jen Psaki" on MSNBC, Goldman told the former White House press secretary that former and potentially future President Donald Trump "has to be eliminated." The congressman ultimately apologized. 

One of those 27 members also includes Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), as Nick Arama at our sister site of RedState highlighted. 

Elon Musk has been amplifying antisemitic content, profiting from misinformation, and allowing pro-Hamas propaganda to spread on X.

This needs to stop.

I've joined @RepDanGoldman and @RepRaskin in demanding accountability from X.

— Adam Schiff (@RepAdamSchiff) November 21, 2023

His "HOT TAKES" piece that mentions some of the points above, as well as some new ones:

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Of course this is about trying to bring down pressure on X. This has nothing to do with "antisemitism." Musk is not an antisemite. Schiff should be looking to the violent antisemitic people in his own party who have been rampaging in the streets. He doesn't want to talk about the people who even attacked the police at the DNC. But he doesn't want to call out the people in his own party. He doesn't want to call out his own colleagues who make antisemitic remarks. I wrote the other day the hilarious whataboutisms that Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) pulled out to deflect from the leftist violence at the DNC. And maybe Schiff should talk to Goldman about not saying things that sound like threats to former President Donald Trump. 

In Schiff's case, it might also have to do with the Twitter Files exposing his effort to influence the site when it was controlled by the prior owners. But imagine Schiff, who spread the Russia collusion hoax, trying to talk about anyone else and "misinformation." 

The letter, addressed to both Musk and X CEO Linda Yaccarino, asks for a response by December 1, asking the following questions:

1. Please explain how these violating posts and accounts were allowed to remain live for days after their policy violations had been publicized? 
2. What action does X plan to take about Hamas-related content currently on the platform? 
3. What changes does X intend to implement to ensure that the harmful spread of terrorist propaganda does not happen again? 

The letter specifically indicates "a grave concern surrounding X’s ongoing failure to abide by its own policies governing the promotion of misinformation and hateful, violent, and terroristic propaganda videos, which shockingly have been used by the company for profit." This includes with subheadlines such as "X Amplifying Terrorist Propaganda," "X Profiting from this Propaganda," and "X Profiting from Spread of Misinformation," as well as discussions of "Clear Violations of Twitter Policy."

There's also mention of findings from NewsGuard. On Wednesday, the X Safety account, without mentioning the letter, pointed out that it is a for-profit company.

NewsGuard is about to publish a “report” on misinformation on X. As a for-profit company, they will only share the data that underpins their purported research if you pay. @NewsGuardRating also uses these reports to pressure companies to buy their “fact-checking” services. It’s…

— Safety (@Safety) November 22, 2023

While the letter expresses concerns with antisemitism, it does so from a perspective of casting blame on X's Musk and Yaccarino. There's no mention of Musk's announcement from last Friday that using terms "decolonization" and "from the river to the sea" are against the platform's terms of service and will result in suspension. The move was applauded by the Anti-Defamation League's Jonathan Greenblatt, who has been at odds with Musk and X in the past.

As I said earlier this week, “decolonization”, “from the river to the sea” and similar euphemisms necessarily imply genocide.

Clear calls for extreme violence are against our terms of service and will result in suspension. https://t.co/1fCFo5Lezb

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 17, 2023

This is an important and welcome move by @elonmusk. I appreciate this leadership in fighting hate. https://t.co/N1tMHa1M1j

— Jonathan Greenblatt (@JGreenblattADL) November 17, 2023

That same day, Musk also posted a clip from The Daily Wire's Ben Shapiro breaking down how Musk is often grouped in with antisemites after posting what Shapiro declared "a rather large Twitter booboo." 

Shapiro made a larger point about how "a lot of the people doing just that" with the linking "are happily calling for Israel to cease-fire in support of Hamas." He also added that "very often antisemitism becomes a political football. When you can hang the label on Donald Trump or Elon Musk, and you're on the left, you do it. However, when you're forced to denounce pro-Hamas protesters, shouting 'from the river to the sea, Palestine must be free,' suddenly you get a little shy. Thus, the same media leaping on both Trump and Musk has been downplaying the open Jew hatred and massive pro-Hamas protesters around the globe, instead propagating lies about Israel's supposed human rights violations."

"Instead," as Shapiro continued, "they're focusing in on their political enemies, like Trump and Musk, and deeming them the acolytes of Hitler. Meanwhile, the actual Hitler acolytes were out there, waving "Mein Kampf," they're like 'those people, I mean they are oppressed and Brown.'"

Shapiro went on to also say that these people might have "more bite" to their grievances if "these people actually spent some actual time talking people who actually like Hitler on Planet Earth, who are right now holding some 240 Jews and others hostage in Gaza and killed 1,200 people and have subjected the Gaza strip to complete hellish tyranny for the past 20 years. But, a lot of these same people are totally silent.

This was all before the November 21 letter was sent out, but again there had been no mention in the members' letter. 

This feels like a breakthrough day

Where each of @elonmusk, @JGreenblattADL and @benshapiro are starting to understand each other’s views better

All valid, but sometimes delivered in a way where they’re misunderstood https://t.co/pncYK8S1Va

— Shaun Maguire (@shaunmmaguire) November 18, 2023