Elon Musk's antisemitic stance chases IBM, Apple away from X social platform

The White House has accused billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk of spreading a "hideous" antisemitic lie on his social media site X this week, calling it an "abhorrent promotion of antisemitic and racist hate" that "runs against our core values as Americans".

As reported by the New York Times, Washington lashed out at Musk after he sparked an outcry on November 14 when responding to a user who accused Jews of hating white people and professing indifference to antisemitism. “You have said the actual truth”, was Musk's reply, which the White House called "unacceptable" on November 17.

This comes only a day after tech-giant IBM suspended all advertising on Elon Musk-owned X (former Twitter) platform after a report found its ads were placed next to content promoting Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party, with Apple having followed their example on November 17.

Musk, calling himself a supporter of free speech and having vowed to make the social media platform accessible to anyone wanting to exercise this right, has faced accusations of tolerating antisemitic messages on the platform since purchasing it last year.