Israel PM Benjamin Netanyahu asks Elon Musk to 'stop' antisemitism on X

Israel's prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, met Twitter (now X) owner Elon Musk in California on Monday and urged him to "roll back" antisemitism on the platform.

The meeting was broadcast live on Monday afternoon and saw the two men discussing AI and free speech.

"I know your commitment to free speech. But I also know your opposition to antisemitism. You've spoken about it, tweeted about it. And all I can say is, I hope you find, within the confines of the First Amendment, the ability to stop not only antisemitism, or roll it back as best you can, but any collective hatred of people...", said Netanyahu.

"I know you're committed to that and I hope you succeed. And it's not an easy task, but I encourage you and urge you to find a balance", added the Israeli leader.

Netanyahu's appeal comes after several reports claimed that X has seen a significant rise in hate speech since Musk's takeover.

Earlier this year, an analysis conducted by tech firm CASM Technology and the Institute for Strategic Dialogue revealed that antisemitic tweets have more than doubled since Elon Musk took over Twitter last year.

The researchers analysed over a million tweets with the help of various tech tools for "plausibly antisemitic" tweets between June 2022 and February 2023. The findings, which have not been peer-reviewed, revealed that there was a 105 per cent increase in the number of such tweets from October 27 to February 9, 2023.

"In all, a total of 325,739 tweets from 146,516 accounts were labelled as 'plausibly antisemitic' over the course of our study, stretching from June 1, 2022, to Feb. 9, 2023", per the report.

Jewish investor and philanthropist George Soros was mentioned more than 19,000 times in antisemitic tweets, with several users claiming that he was a member of the "Nazi" world order. Soros survived the Nazi occupation of Hungary and moved to England in 1947 at the age of 17. Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky, who is Jewish, was not spared either.

The big picture:

Musk calls himself a "free speech absolutist" and did away with Twitter's independent Trust and Safety Council, laid off hundreds of employees, and reinstated banned accounts. He believes that content permitted by law can be allowed on Twitter.

The accounts that were reinstated included those of former US President Donald Trump and rapper Kanye West. It needs to be noted that West was banned from Twitter for posting antisemitic tweets.

Musk had to ban West again after the latter posted antisemitic tweets soon after his account was reinstated.

An analysis by the Network Contagion Research Institute found that the use of the N-word on Twitter, a racist term used against Black people, increased by almost 500% after Elon Musk's acquisition of the platform. It found that most of the tweets using the N-word were from anonymous trolls.

Twitter's then head of safety and integrity, Yoel Roth, had put the blame for this sudden rise on a "trolling campaign". He said that most of these hateful tweets had come from just 300 accounts, nearly all of which were "inauthentic".

The racist trend had forced human rights activists and several prominent personalities to ask for swift action against hate speech on Twitter. NBA star LeBron James also asked Musk to take action against it.

Musk had pledged to ensure unrestricted free speech on Twitter before he bought it. People are now worried that it may lead to a rise in hate speech and violent conflict.