Elon Musk has rekindled Meta Platforms Inc.’s META 2020 hate speech crisis amidst a potential $22 billion defamation lawsuit against Anti-Defamation League or ADL.
What Happened: On Tuesday, Musk took to X and said that Meta, formerly known as Facebook, has been permitting left-leaning pressure groups to dictate its policies in exchange for advertising revenue, along with a year 2020 news article.
The report was about Facebook’s tumultuous year, marked by a massive advertising boycott by over 800 companies globally that withdrew millions of dollars in ad spending.
These advertisers, including major brands such as Coca-Cola and Unilever, reportedly demanded that Facebook take more aggressive measures against hate speech on its platform.
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According to the report shared by Musk, critical moments during this crisis included a conference call between civil rights advocates and Facebook’s CEO, Mark Zuckerberg.
This call played a pivotal role in shaping the boycott plan aimed at compelling Facebook to address hate speech effectively.
It also drew attention to the differing approaches taken by social media platforms, with Twitter taking a more stringent stance on controversial posts while Zuckerberg defended Facebook’s policies.
Why It’s Important: Musk’s accusations against Facebook highlighted the ongoing debate surrounding the influence of pressure groups on social media policies and the delicate balance between free speech and responsible content moderation.
ADL has accused Musk’s X, formerly Twitter, of failing to curb hate speech and extremist content on the platform since the tech billionaire acquired the microblogging site for $44 billion last year.
Musk has firmly denied any anti-Semitic agenda within the company and accused the ADL of wielding undue influence over the platform’s advertising revenue.
He also said that advertisers could become wary of their association with X due to the ADL’s allegations, resulting in a permanent “pause” in ad campaigns until the ADL gives the green signal.
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