Elon Musk under fire for calling antisemitic conspiracy theory the ‘actual truth’

Elon Musk has previously said he is ‘pro free speech’ but against antisemitism ‘of any kind’

Elon Musk is coming under fire for calling an antisemitic conspiracy theory the “actual truth”.

The saga began when a social media user appeared to push the “great replacement” conspiracy theory on X, claiming that Jewish communities “have been pushing the exact kind of dialectical hatred against whites that they claim to want people to stop using against them”.

“I’m deeply disinterested in giving the tiniest s*** now about western Jewish populations coming to the disturbing realization that those hordes of minorities that support flooding their country don’t exactly like them too much. You want truth said to your face, there it is,” the post added.

Mr Musk replied to the post, writing on his X platform: “You have said the actual truth.”

The initial post came in response to a campaign video posted on X by the Foundation to Combat Anti-Semitism. In the video, a father is seen calling his son out over the hateful rhetoric the son has spewed online.

Mr Musk’s response received praised from white nationalist Nick Fuentes – while prompting widespread backlash from dozens more online.

CNN’s Jake Tapper condemned the tech mogul, accusing him of “pushing unvarnished antisemitism at a time of rising antisemitism and violence against Jews”.

Journalist Matthew Yglesias also chimed in to criticise the X owner. “America’s richest man chimes in to say that Jews are getting what we deserve for being liberals,” he wrote.

Other X users demanded a boycott of companies owned by Mr Musk such as Tesla.

Mr Musk later backtracked on his initial post, writing that “decolonization necessarily implies a Jewish genocide, thus it is unacceptable to any reasonable person”.

This isn’t the first time the billionaire has been accused of promoting content attacking Jewish people during a time of rising antisemitism.

In the days after the 7 October Hamas terror attack on Israel, Mr Musk was forced to delete a post where he amplified an account widely accused of antisemitism and of promoting debunked videos as reliable sources of information about the attack.

Meanwhile, last year, advocacy organisation the American Jewish Committee called on Mr Musk to apologise over a controversial post that made a satirical comparison between Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Adolf Hitler.

Mr Musk has previously insisted that he is “pro free speech” but against antisemitism “of any kind”.

In September, he threatened to sue the Anti-Defamation League, a century-old NGO that describes itself as the “leading anti-hate organisation in the world” after the organisation accused him of antisemitism.