As of: January 23, 2024, 2:47 p.m
By: Sonja Thomaser
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Elon Musk probably wants to save his reputation with a visit to Auschwitz.
In a debate, he defended his platform X, which had come under criticism.
Krakow - Billionaire Elon Musk's penchant for eccentric behavior is well known.
The CEO of Tesla and SpaceX does not shy away from crude statements – whether they are deliberately provocative or not.
He also overshot the target in November 2023. On his online platform X, formerly Twitter, Musk agreed to the anti-Semitic statements made by a user.
He had claimed that Jews were “stirring up hatred against whites” and smuggling “hordes of minorities” into the West.
Musk responded with the words “that’s the truth.”
The background is a right-wing extremist conspiracy theory, according to which Jews are pursuing a secret plan to bring irregular migrants to Western countries in order to weaken the white majorities.
Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk visits the site of the German Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp in Oswiecim, Poland.
© Yoav Dudkevitch/dpa
Musk describes visit to Auschwitz as “incredibly moving”
Musk has now visited the former Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration and extermination camp in Poland.
Musk laid a wreath there on Monday (January 22) and took part in a memorial ceremony together with the chairman of the European Jewish Association (EJA), Menachem Margolin, as the EJA announced.
Photos showed Musk at the memorial site with one of his sons sitting on his shoulders.
Margolin had already invited Musk to the visit in September 2023.
Musk described his visit to Auschwitz as “incredibly moving.”
It was “deeply sad and tragic that people could do this to other people,” said Musk at an EJA symposium in Krakow.
“It hits your heart a lot more when you see it in person,” he added.
Accusations of anti-Semitism against Elon Musk
After the incident on his platform X in November, allegations of anti-Semitism were leveled against Musk.
In later statements, Musk did not back down from his position, but only qualified it a little: He was referring to “some groups” such as the Jewish organization Anti-Defamation League (ADL) that “actually spread anti-white racism and anti-Asian racism.” .
At the same time, he reiterated that, in his view, there was a problem with racism against whites.
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In response, a number of major advertisers stopped advertising on the platform, including Apple, Disney and IBM.
The billionaire then admitted that his statement was truly the “worst and stupidest post” he had ever made.
He apologized and also claimed that he had been misunderstood.
Hate messages have been booming since Musk took over at X
Musk took over Twitter in October 2022.
Observers such as the ADL, which fights against discrimination and defamation of Jews, have since denounced a significant increase in hate messages and misinformation on X.
At the conference on anti-Semitism in Krakow, Musk defended his company.
External reviews have shown that compared to other online platforms, “X has the least amount of anti-Semitism,” Musk said at the discussion, which was also attended by right-wing US commentator Ben Shapiro.
Musk reiterated that the principle of freedom of expression counts for X. If someone posts a false claim, others can correct it immediately.
“The tireless search for the truth is the goal of X.” If social media and freedom of expression had existed at the time of Auschwitz, it would have been impossible to hide this crime, Musk said.
The Nazi death camp Auschwitz-Birkenau is a symbol of the genocide of six million European Jews committed by Nazi Germany.
Between 1940 and 1945, a million Jews and 100,000 other people were murdered in the camp.
(so with dpa/AFP)