This page is a supplement to:
The purpose of this page is to present comprehensive evidence that supports the following contentions:
- On November 4, 2022 — eight days after Elon Musk took ownership of Twitter — the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) published a Tweet thread that essentially accused him of forcing the site to facilitate anti-Semitism, and on this basis, called for an advertiser boycott, as part of its “Stop Hate For Profit” campaign. See Section 1.
- One of the ADL’s accusations claimed Twitter “has been one of the primary places for disseminating” an anti-Semitic hate site’s “mapping project,” which provides anti-Semites with literal road maps to Israel-supporters in the Boston area. In reality, the ADL said absolutely nothing about Twitter’s previous management enabling the hate site’s maps since they were first posted — on June 3, 2022, five months earlier. It was only after Musk had owned Twitter for eight days that the ADL finally said its first words about the issue — despite my repeatedly, publicly calling it out for its silence on it. See Section 2.
- In another Tweet in its November 4 thread, the ADL claimed Musk was “gutting staff that supported combating antisemitism and hate” — then never apologized after Twitter’s top moderation executive claimed, the same day, that the site was actually safer under Musk, than under previous management. Further, for thirteen years, the ADL has said virtually nothing about the fact that this same “staff” chose to enable the terrorist that it claims is world’s most influential inciter and funder of anti-Semitic hatred and violence: Ayatollah Khamenei, who’s amassed nearly 1 million followers. Even after Twitter’s previous CEO publicly declared in 2020 that the site must respect Khamenei’s “right… to speak and publish what he needs to,” the ADL was silent. See Section 3.1.
- Further, the ADL said has nothing about Twitter enabling Louis Farrakhan, whom it calls “the most popular antisemite in America.” Lastly, the ADL posted a combined total of three Tweets, since 2012, condemning Twitter’s previous management for enabling the two most prominent Palestinian terrorist gangs, Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. And in none of these instances did the ADL never called for advertisers to boycott Twitter, for its decisions to enable these users. See Sections 3.2 and 3.3. Similarly, the ADL said absolutely nothing about the fact that Twitter’s previous management enabling an anti-Semitic US university student posting a Tweet in which she said, “I want to kill every motherf*cking Zionist” — or that it allowed her account to remain active. See Section 3.4.
- Conclusion: The ADL’s criticism of Musk, and Twitter, is politically motivated. In an Orwellian twist, the ADL’s pathological cowardice and silent complicity have actually helped enable the most influential inciters of anti-Semitic hatred to flourish on Twitter, over a very long period of time. And on the day that Musk took ownership of Twitter, October 27, 2022, nearly every one of these users’ accounts was still active.
- In total, of the 30,900 Tweets the ADL has posted since joining Twitter in 2009, only eight condemned Twitter’s management for enabling what it knows are the most influential inciters of anti-Semitic hate, violence and terrorism. That amounts to 0.000258% of its Tweets. It was only on November 4, 2022, that the ADL began accusing Elon Musk of facilitating anti-Semitism on the site — even though he’d only owned the site for 8 days.
- Bonus: On September 29, 2022 — 36 days before the ADL launched its call for an advertiser boycott of Twitter — another boycott of the site was announced, by brands including Walt Disney, NBCUniversal, Coca-Cola, DIRECTV, Dyson, Mazda and Forbes. The reason: these brands objected to Twitter profiting by enabling child pornography. Yet the ADL said absolutely nothing about that boycott (proven by an October 21, 2022 archive capture of the ADL’s Tweets going back to September 29, here.)
This is merely a sampling of evidence that I and other serious researchers have collected, that demonstrates what the ADL really is, and does, in contrast to what it claims about itself, to induce donors to support it.
Contents
(1) November 4, 2020: The ADL publicly called for an advertiser boycott against Twitter
(2) The ADL implied that Twitter, under Musk, is “one of the primary places for disseminating” an anti-Semitic hate site’s “mapping project.” Yet the ADL said absolutely nothing about Twitter’s previous management enabling The Mapping Project, and BDS-Boston to champion it, until November 4, 2022 — five months after it was first made aware of this fact.
(3) The ADL complained that Musk had “gutted” the “staff that supported combating antisemitism” on Twitter. Yet for the past 13 years, the ADL has been virtually silent regarding that same “staff” enabling the most influential inciters of anti-Semitic hatred and terrorism to flourish on Twitter.
(4) The ADL chronically complains about the need to stand up against misinformation, libel-slander, and incitement — yet it compared America’s border security officers to Nazis
(5) UPDATES
(1) November 4, 2020: The ADL publicly called for an advertiser boycott against Twitter
On November 4, 2022 — eight days after Elon Musk took ownership of Twitter — the ADL posted a Tweet thread that opened with the claim that “we are profoundly concerned about antisemitism and hate” on Twitter, and called for advertisers to boycott the site:
Today, we are joining dozens of other groups to ask advertisers to pause Twitter spending because we are profoundly concerned about antisemitism and hate on the platform. Here’s why we’re asking advertisers to #StopHateForProfit and #StopToxicTwitter?https://t.co/a83e2eTFwz
— ADL (@ADL) November 4, 2022
(2) The ADL implied that Twitter, under Musk, is “one of the primary places for disseminating” an anti-Semitic hate site’s “mapping project”
Within the ADL’s thread was this Tweet (screencap here), in which it explicitly implied that Musk has been responsible for facilitating an anti-Semitic hate group:
Twitter has been one of the primary places for disseminating the Boston Mapping Project, which called on activists to ‘dismantle’ Jewish community institutions and a wide array of essential Jewish community groups because they support Israel.
— ADL (@ADL) November 4, 2022
The ADL was referring to The Mapping Project, an anti-Semitic hate site (archive here), that produced a detailed, interactive map of the locations of Boston-area Israel-supporting Jewish activists and civil rights organizations. On June 3, 2022, The Mapping Project posted a Tweet with a link to its resources. The same day, BDS-Boston, one of the America’s most influential anti-Semitic organizations, shared The Mapping Project’s Tweet, openly praised it — and further, claimed that Boston-area Israel-supporters are enabling oppression in America:
From our friends at the Mapping Project! Their map and articles illustrate how local support for the colonization of Palestine is structurally tied to policing, evictions, and privatization locally, and to US imperialist projects worldwide.
Check it out: https://t.co/HpNaCvxUXS pic.twitter.com/fzyFP5uERE— BDS Boston (@BDSBoston) June 3, 2022
The outrage from within certain sectors of the Jewish community over this Twitter-based, mass-marketed incitement against Jews and Israel, was swift:
- BDS Boston Criticized for Endorsing Map Targeting Jewish Institutions — Jewish Journal, June 10, 2022
- ‘Against a wall’: Boston’s Jewish leftists conflicted by BDS map – The Forward, June 21, 2022
- On June 20, even the BDS Movement — the parent organization that openly advocates for the destruction of Israel — denounced the Mapping Project, and BDS-Boston sharing and endorsing it
- On June 24, StopAntisemitism.org posted a Tweet thread that contain a detailed chronicle of the anti-Semitic organizations that support the Mapping Project, and BDS-Boston’s Tweet promoting it
Note also that on June 15, the ADL’s Northeast US Regional Director called the Mapping Project “a Jewish hit list”:
“The map serves as a Jewish hit list,” said Robert Trestan, the head of the New England chapter of the Anti-Defamation League. His level of concern about the website compared to other threats he has assessed is “extremely high,” he said. Trestan, like dozens of other Jewish leaders, philanthropists, and rabbis, is personally named on the map, alongside the address of his place of work.
The ADL said absolutely nothing about Twitter’s previous management enabling The Mapping Project, and BDS-Boston to champion it, until November 4, 2022 — five months after it was first made aware of this fact.
I know this because I regularly documented this fact, and publicly challenged the ADL on Twitter, to break its silence on this outrage — starting on June 3, 2022, the first day that BDS-Boston posted its Tweet linking to, and cheering The Mapping Project.
Note that my sarcasm is due to the fact that I’ve been observing and documenting the ADL chronically ignoring the mass incitement of hatred and violence against Jews, if it’s perpetrated by individuals and groups that are not right-wing, white supremacist, etc.
June 3, 2022:
Paging the @ADL: How could Adina, a lone Tweeter, publicize this mind-boggling incitement, that would cause you to launch a 9-alarm emergency (rightfully), if this was done by white supremacists – before you’ve said anything? https://t.co/JxWNvuIyc8
— Jon Sutz (@JonSutz) June 3, 2022
June 4: I called the ADL out in more specific terms (June 7, 2022 capture of ADL’s recent Tweets here):
Paging the @ADL:
Are the Internet connections down at all of your offices across America? Is your entire national staff OD’d on horse tranquilizers?
Why else would you still be silent on this naked incitement to stalk, harass and possibly worse, to Jews in America who…
— Jon Sutz (@JonSutz) June 4, 2022
I called the ADL out again, on June 17, with even more detail (June 18, 2022 capture of ADL’s recent Tweets here):
IT IS STILL POSTED.https://t.co/iWsym4ZDHZ
Because the mighty @ADL has said NOTHING to condemn @Twitter for allowing it to be posted, or to demand that it be removed, as an egregious violation of its rules against incitement… against the #1 most-terrorized super-minority.
— Jon Sutz (@JonSutz) June 17, 2022
From June 18, 2022 through September, I regularly posted my proof, on average at least once every 10 days, of the fact that the ADL had said absolutely nothing about Twitter enabling The Mapping Project, and BDS-Boston’s Tweets cheering and linking to it (hereafter referred to as “TMP & BDS-B”).
Below is a sampling.
July 5: I commended ADL for condemning a right-wing group that marched in Boston.
I also pointed out that for more than a month, it’s said nothing about Twitter enabling TMP & BDS-B (July 6, 2022 capture of ADL’s recent Tweets here):
Good call, @ADL.
Now, why is this DAY 32 of the ADL saying NOTHING about the fact that Twitter is still profiting by allowing BDS-Boston’s Tweet promoting & linking to the Mapping Project to remain posted?
Answer: Because you are mind-boggling cowards.https://t.co/iWsym4ZDHZ pic.twitter.com/1MEHtog8W0
— Jon Sutz (@JonSutz) July 5, 2022
August 9: In contrast, when a BDS group marched in New York City, calling for Jews to be driven out of NYC, and the destruction of Israel, the ADL said nothing, and was still silent about TMP & BDS-B (August 9, 2022 capture of ADL’s recent Tweets here):
Where the hell is the @ADL?
If these were right-wingers, it would be organizing a cross-partisan response, at meth-speed, to respond to this by 9am tomorrow.
Instead, it’s silent, and we get this instead:https://t.co/KHEAmIpEXR
You’re appalling, mind-boggling cowards, ADL. https://t.co/1mgL8aMYFE
— Jon Sutz (@JonSutz) August 9, 2022
August 25: I post detailed documentation of ADL’s continuing silence re about TMP & BDS-B (August 26, 2022 capture of ADL’s recent Tweets here):
Paging the @ADL:
So do I have this correct?
1) Your NE Regional Director (correctly) called the Mapping Project a “Jewish hit list,” that imperils Jews in Boston and beyond
2) For 83 straight days now, since BDS-Boston posted a Tweet that linked to & cheered the Mapping…
— Jon Sutz (@JonSutz) August 25, 2022
October 22: The Coalition for Jewish Values, which claims to represent 2,000 US Orthodox rabbis, posted a Tweet that called on Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the ADL, to resign after it shared and liked a Tweet that claimed “Tucker Carlson went full nazi [sic].”
Another user posted a reply Tweet, commenting on the inefficacy of Jewish groups in fighting back against institutional anti-Semitism.
I responded to his commentary with the following two-part Tweet.
Relevant: November 2, 2022 capture of ADL’s recent Tweets here.
What do they have to be afraid of?
The front-line “Jewish” orgs have to be dragged kicking and screaming into condemning the most fanatical anti-Semitic liars & inciters.
Example: The BDS-Boston Tweet cheering & linking to The Mapping Project is still up. From June 3.
— Jon Sutz (@JonSutz) October 22, 2022
2/
Right, @ADL?
I called you out on Twitter on this at least a dozen times over the last four months, for saying nothing about Twitter allowing what your own org (rightfully) called “a Jewish hit list” to remain published.
You’re beyond corrupt.https://t.co/iWsym50bxx
— Jon Sutz (@JonSutz) October 22, 2022
November 4: Finally, after five months, the ADL posted its first condemnation of Twitter for enabling, and profiting from, TMP-BDS-B’s Tweets
The archive link to this Tweet is here (screencap here):
Twitter has been one of the primary places for disseminating the Boston Mapping Project, which called on activists to ‘dismantle’ Jewish community institutions and a wide array of essential Jewish community groups because they support Israel.
— ADL (@ADL) November 4, 2022
Special note: As of November 25, 2022, both The Mapping Project’s and BDS-Boston’s Twitter account are active
This fact is the direct result of the ADL saying nothing about the fact that Twitter was, according to the ADL’s standard, profiting by enabling both users to repeatedly violate its rules and policies.
- The Mapping Project (November 25, 2022 archive capture here)
- BDS-Boston (November 26, 2022 archive capture here)
(3) The ADL then complained that Musk had “gutted” the “staff that supported combating antisemitism” on Twitter.
The ADL’s deception in Section (2) was followed, in the same thread, by a Tweet containing another accusation of anti-Semitism against Musk:
Musk has also conducted massive layoffs, gutting staff that supported combating antisemitism and hate on Twitter. Until Musk makes real changes to #stophateforprofit, we urge advertisers to #StopToxicTwitter by pausing their advertising on the platform globally.
— ADL (@ADL) November 4, 2022
It is true that Musk ordered a mass layoff of Twitter employees — including moderators, because of their dysfunction, and the irrational decisions he asserted they’d made, which prompted him to buy the site in the first place.
The same day that the ADL published this Tweet (November 4), Twitter’s top executive of moderation, Yoel Roth, posted a Tweet that said, “our core moderation capabilities remain in place,” thus obliterating the ADL’s claim:
Here are the facts about where Twitter’s Trust & Safety and moderation capacity stands today:
tl;dr: While we said goodbye to incredibly talented friends and colleagues yesterday, our core moderation capabilities remain in place.
— Yoel Roth (@yoyoel) November 4, 2022
Then, on November 11, Roth published an editorial at the New York Times that completed his obliteration of the ADL’s assertion, by claiming “Twitter was actually safer under Mr. Musk than it was before”:
“Mr. Musk empowered my team to move more aggressively to remove hate speech across the platform — censoring more content, not less. Our actions worked: Before my departure, I shared data about Twitter’s enforcement of hateful conduct, showing that by some measures, Twitter was actually safer under Mr. Musk than it was before.”
To my knowledge, the ADL neither retracted nor apologized for its false accusation against Musk.
This, however, was just the start of the ADL’s double-talk regarding anti-Semitism on Twitter, since Musk bought the site.
On November 4, 2022, the ADL publicly declared itself to be (a) A vigilant watchdog of anti-Semitism on Twitter, and (b) Supportive of tough policies and rigorous enforcement against it.
The facts, however, show that:
- Both claims are false
- In an Orwellian twist, as the rest of this document demonstrates, through its silent complicity, the ADL has actually helped the most influential inciters of hatred against Jews and Israel to flourish on Twitter
For the past 13 years, the ADL has been virtually silent regarding that same “staff” enabling the most influential inciters of anti-Semitic hatred and terrorism to flourish on Twitter
Here are some examples of incidents that prove the validity of this assertion.
(3.1) The ADL asserts Ayatollah Khamenei leads the world’s most lethal anti-Semitic terror regime. Yet it has all but ignored Twitter’s previous management enabling him for 13 years, or to amass nearly 950,000 followers, and never called for any advertisers to boycott the site because of it.
(3.2) The ADL says Louis Farrakhan is “The Most Popular Antisemite in America.” Yet it has never called out Twitter’s previous management for enabling him for 11 years, and to amass 370,000+ followers.
(3.3) Jonathan Greenblatt condemned Elon Musk for allowing Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad to post on Twitter. Yet the ADL has only called out Twitter’s previous management for enabling Hamas three times, and PIJ once — and never called for an advertiser boycott.
(3.4) A notorious anti-Semitic USC student who Tweeted, “I want to kill every motherfucking Zionist” — and the school announced it would take no action against her. Yet the ADL said nothing about it, anywhere — and the anti-Semite’s Twitter account is still active.
(3.1) The ADL asserts Ayatollah Khamenei leads the world’s most lethal anti-Semitic terror regime. Yet it has all but ignored Twitter’s previous management enabling him for 13 years, or to amass nearly 950,000 followers, and never called for any advertisers to boycott the site because of it.
On December 9, 2021, Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the ADL, testified before Congress on online hate, during which he asserted:
“Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the Supreme Leader of Iran and the head of the number one state sponsor of antisemitism and terrorism in the world today, has well over a dozen current accounts on Twitter that he uses to promote Hamas and Hezbollah terrorists and spread hateful antisemitic tropes across a broad array of world languages.”
Eight months later, in July 2022, the ADL’s outgoing VP of International Affairs, Sheila Nazarian, publicly said:
“Iran happens to be the number one state sponsor of antisemitism.”
Then, on November 4, 2022, the ADL’s CEO, Jonathan Greenblatt, posted this Tweet, attacking Musk for allowing Khamenei to post on Twitter (continued in Section 3.3, regarding Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad):
Glad @elonmusk removed JISR from @twitter, but pulling down one account isn’t enough. We need consistent, transparent policies. If there’s a new approach to antisemitism on the service, why are Khamenei, PIJ and Hamas still allowed to tweet? https://t.co/PzuPS8hdup
— Jonathan Greenblatt (@JGreenblattADL) November 27, 2022
Given these facts, one might assume that the ADL:
- Has been vigilantly leading the charge against Twitter’s previous management, which ran the site from its debut in 2006 through October 27, 2022, for facilitating the Adolf Hitler of industrial-scale global incitement of anti-Semitic hatred and violence
- Must have called for advertiser boycotts against Twitter, given that it has allowed Khamenei (@khamenei_ir) to enjoy his account for thirteen years, and to amass nearly 950,000 followers (nearly three times as many as the ADL):
That person would be very wrong.
In reality, the ADL has been comparatively silent regarding Twitter enabling Khamenei, when compared to the 9-alarm crusade it launched against Elon Musk.
I did a Twitter search (archive here) on November 27, 2022, using the string “ADL Khamenei Twitter.”
The result: The ADL posted four* Tweets condemning Twitter for profiting by enabling Khamenei — in thirteen years — none of which called for an advertiser boycott
(4) November 2, 2022: | One Tweet calling for Twitter to “suspend” Khamenei for two posts, insinuating that Israel was behind its civil unrest |
(3) August 16, 2022: | One Tweet calling out Twitter for enabling Khamenei, and linking to the letter to its CEO from July 28, 2022 |
(2) July 28, 2022: | One Tweet calling for Twitter to “deplatform” Khamenei, which linked to this open letter from Greenblatt to the CEO of Twitter |
(1) May 27, 2021: | One Tweet calling for Twitter to ban Khamenei for incitement against Jews |
January 22, 2021*: | ADL CEO Greenblatt posted one Tweet, calling on Twitter CEO to ban Khamenei (*Note: The ADL did not Tweet this; I only found it because of this Tweet, the second-to-last in the archive of the above search.) |
For context:
- Khamenei has been using Twitter since March 2009.
- As of November 27, 2022, the ADL has posted 31,900 Tweets since it joined Twitter in January 2009. Four* of them have called attention to the fact that Twitter profits by enabling what it claims is the world’s most influential inciter of anti-Semitic hate and terrorism. Those four Tweets constitute 0.000129% of all ADL Tweets.
Yet the ADL has only posted four* Tweets condemning Twitter enabling him.
These Tweets may appear to the casual observer as sufficient to indicate the ADL has adequately stood up to Twitter’s previous management, for profiting by allowing Khamenei to use its site to incite hatred and violence against Jews and Israel.
Recall that the ADL’s justification for its call for advertisers to boycott Twitter, since Musk bought it, on October 27, 2022, is to “STOP HATE FOR PROFIT”:
Today, we are joining dozens of other groups to ask advertisers to pause Twitter spending because we are profoundly concerned about antisemitism and hate on the platform. Here’s why we’re asking advertisers to #StopHateForProfit and #StopToxicTwitter?https://t.co/a83e2eTFwz
— ADL (@ADL) November 4, 2022
The following evidence, however, shows that after Twitter’s previous CEO claimed Khamenei has a “right to speak and publish” what he needs to, on Twitter, the ADL never said a word, anywhere
- On October 28, 2020, the then-CEO of Twitter, Jack Dorsey, was asked in a Congressional hearing why he doesn’t ban Khamenei. Dorsey’s response: “We believe it’s important for everyone to hear from global leaders… we want to make sure we are respecting their right to speak and to publish what they need.”
- A November 27, 2022 search at ADL.org, using the string “Jack Dorsey Twitter Khamenei right to speak and publish,” returned zero results.
- On December 9, 2021, ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt testified before Congress, regarding online hate and anti-Semitism. The transcript shows that Greenblatt only mentioned Dorsey once — but said nothing about his assertion that Khamenei has a “right… to speak and publish” what he needs, on Twitter.
- A Twitter search on November 27, 2022 using the string “ADL Jack Twitter Khamenei right to speak and to publish,” returned zero results.
- And a December 6, 2022 search at ADL.org using the string “Jack Twitter Khamenei right to speak and to publish” returned zero results:
(3.2) The ADL says Louis Farrakhan is “The Most Popular Antisemite in America.” Yet it has never called out Twitter’s previous management for enabling him for 11 years, and to amass 370,000+ followers.
On July 15, 2020, the ADL published this report on Louis Farrakhan, leader of the Nation of Islam:
I’ve also done extensive work to compile documentation about Farrakhan’s incitement of anti-Semitic, racist and anti-LGBT hatred. My new mini-documentary, “TWITTER EXPOSED: Enabling the Taliban – but stopping a campaign to rescue US allies FROM the Taliban,” features a segment covering Farrakhan (cue up to the 5:33 mark; runs through 6:52).
To support my documentary, I created a detailed resource page on Farrakhan; here’s an adapted excerpt:
Numerous watchdogs including the Anti-Defamation League, the Simon Wiesenthal Center, the Southern Poverty Law Center, Snopes, the Jewish Virtual Library, and the Creative Community for Peace have created extensive compilations of documentation about Louis Farrakhan.
In summary, these and many other organizations have produced reports that they allege contain proof that Farrakhan has said the following:
- That white people “deserve to die, [and] they know it.” (source)
- That he openly told his followers, “We must rise up and kill those who kill us. Stalk them and kill them.” (source)
- That “Those who call themselves ‘Jews,’ who are not really Jews, but are in fact Satan”; that Hitler was “a very great man”; and that he’s not an anti-Semite, he’s “anti-Termite.” (source)
- That homosexuality is “degenerate crap,” “cultural degeneracy,” and that those who engage in it will be rejected by Heaven, because it’s “filth” and “God condemns it” (source)
- That he “identifies as ‘the lone Messenger of God,’ preaches that the ‘white Jews’ have been ‘the enemies of God,’ [and] the servants of Satan, for the last 4,000 years.” (source)
Here’s another excerpt of the resource page I created, that focuses on Farrakhan’s hatred of and incitement against Jews:
“Jews were responsible for all of this filth and degenerate behavior that Hollywood is putting out, turning men into women and women into men…. White folks are going down. And Satan is going down. And Farrakhan, by God’s grace, has pulled a cover off of that Satanic Jew, and I’m here to say your time is up, your world is through!”
— February 28, 2018 sermon
“Those who call themselves ‘Jews,’ who are not really Jews, but are in fact Satan: You should learn to call them by their real name, ‘Satan’; you are coming face-to-face with Satan, the Arch Deceiver, the enemy of God and the enemy of the Righteous.”
— February 2017 sermon
“In 100 years, [Jews have come to] control movies, television, recording, publishing, commerce, radio, they own it all!!!”
— February 26, 2012 sermon
“They [Jews] are the greatest controllers of Black minds, Black intelligence […] They put us before the world as clowns and as purveyors of filth.”
— October 18, 1998 interview on NBC “Meet The Press”
“The Jews have been so bad at politics they lost half their population in the Holocaust. They thought they could trust in Hitler, and they helped him get the Third Reich on the road.”
— February 22, 1998 sermon
“[T]he Jews don’t like Farrakhan, so they call me Hitler. Well, that’s a good name. Hitler was a very great man.”
— March 11, 1984 press conference
“To the members of the Jewish community that don’t like me, thank you very much for putting my name all over the planet because of your fear of what we represent. I can go anywhere in the world and they’ve heard of Farrakhan. Thank you very much. I’m not mad at you because you’re so stupid. So when they [Jews] talk about Farrakhan, call me a hater, you do what they do, call me an anti-Semite. Stop it, I’m anti-Termite.”
— October 14, 2018 speech
“Satanic Jews have infected the whole world with poison and deceit… [They] will lead you to filth and indecency. That’s who runs show business. That’s who runs the record industry. That’s who runs television.”
— May 27, 2018 sermon
Twitter has been profiting by enabling Farrakhan since 2011, and as of November 2022, it allowed him to accumulate 370,000 followers (which is more than the ADL’s 357,000 followers)
See @LouisFarrakhan
Examples of Farrakhan’s recent anti-Semitic Tweets – which Twitter removed for violating its policies
Twitter’s previous management knew exactly who and what Louis Farrakhan is, and does.
This Tweet, later removed by Twitter, is is from June 6, 2018:
Here is another Tweet by Farrakhan (also removed), in which he likened Jews to termites:
Despite all the above, Twitter’s previous management openly declared its intent to continue to profit by enabling him:
Twitter says no plans to ban Farrakhan after comparison of Jews to termites – The Times of Israel, October 18, 2018.
Twitter Won’t Ban Farrakhan For Calling Jews ‘Termites.’ They’ll Ban Conservatives For Calling Chelsea Manning A Traitor. – The Daily Wire, October 17, 2018.
So what has the ADL posted on its website and social media said about the fact that Twitter’s previous management chose to profit by enabling Farrakhan, since 2011? Nothing.
And how many crusades has it embarked on to get advertisers to abandon Twitter, for deciding to profit by enabling Farrakhan? Zero.
The ADL has never posted a single Tweet condemning Twitter’s previous management for profiting by enabling Farrakhan, for more than ten years.
This fact is proven by a November 28, 2022 Twitter search (archive here) using the string “@ADL Farrakhan Twitter.”
The results show that the ADL has said nothing about Twitter enabling Farrakhan.
The ADL has also never posted a single item on its website calling out Twitter for enabling Farrakhan
This fact is proven by a November 28, 2022 search at ADL.org (archive here) using the string “Farrakhan Twitter.”
The results show that the ADL has posted not a single article about Twitter enabling Farrakhan.
In its defense, the ADL might point to a statement that its CEO, Jonathan Greenblatt made to the Jewish Journal, regarding Farrakhan’s use of Twitter to spread his anti-Semitic hatred:
“Louis Farrakhan has a long history of vile, anti-Semitic and anti-LGBTQ rhetoric. His latest remarks dehumanizing Jews by calling us termites are despicable. We call on Twitter to remove Farrakhan’s hateful content from the platform to prevent him from spreading and normalizing such hateful messages. This content is exactly the kind of thing the new Twitter policy the company outlined just a few weeks ago is meant to stop.”
Yet a search of the string “Louis Farrakhan has a long history of vile, anti-Semitic and anti-LGBTQ rhetoric” at ADL.org produces zero results:
Yet this is the same ADL that, on November 4, 2022, had the gall to accuse Musk of “gutting” the “staff that supported combating antisemitism” on Twitter — even though it knew that for more than ten years, that same “staff” had been perpetrating the above outrages.
As part of its November 4, 2022 Tweet-fest against Musk, the ADL complained that Twitter did not remove a vile item posted by an obscure anti-Semitic podcaster with less than 1/10th the follower count of Farrakhan:
When Adam Green, an antisemitic podcaster with over 28,000 followers, shared a tweet describing Judaism with terms like ‘savage,’ ‘evil,’ and ‘wicked,’ Twitter declined to remove it after being alerted to it by ADL, saying that it did not violate its community guidelines.
— ADL (@ADL) November 4, 2022
Then, on November 29, 2022, the ADL once again said we and our leaders must call out anti-Semitism, no matter its political DNA — a worthy principle that, as proven on this page, the ADL itself all but refuses to practice:
Our political leaders must call out #antisemitism and all forms of hate when they see it, no matter which side of the aisle they’re on. https://t.co/o4stL6VDKj
— ADL (@ADL) November 29, 2022
(3.3) Jonathan Greenblatt condemned Elon Musk for allowing Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad to post on Twitter. Yet the ADL has only called out Twitter’s previous management for enabling Hamas twice, and PIJ once — and never called for an advertiser boycott.
On November 27, 2022, ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt posted this Tweet:
Glad @elonmusk removed JISR from @twitter, but pulling down one account isn’t enough. We need consistent, transparent policies. If there’s a new approach to antisemitism on the service, why are Khamenei, PIJ and Hamas still allowed to tweet? https://t.co/PzuPS8hdup
— Jonathan Greenblatt (@JGreenblattADL) November 27, 2022
My response to Greenblatt’s Tweet is here.
Background
Hamas is one of the world’s most brutal Islamist terrorist groups, and “governs” the Gaza Strip. Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) is an equally brutal, Gaza-based terrorist group, that operates in the shadow of Hamas.
In 2015, I wrote a detailed report on how Twitter was profiting by enabling Hamas:
Why does Twitter enable Hamas to spread its propaganda?
An excerpt:
Why has Twitter enabled Hamas, the notorious, anti-Semitic terrorist gang, to have and maintain a page since 2012?
Facts:
(1) Since 1997, Hamas has been designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization by the U.S. government.
(2) Under 18 U.S. Code § 2339B, it is a violation of federal law to provide “material support or resources to designated foreign terrorist organizations.”
(3) Yet since December 2012, Twitter has allowed Hamas (specifically its terrorist wing, the Al Qassams Brigade) to maintain a page, which it uses to spread its propaganda throughout the world:
I updated the report in 2016 (see bottom) to report that finally, Twitter shut down this Hamas user account — but it responded by quickly reactivating another account, in which it continued its incitement of hate and violence against Jews:
So how hard and often did the ADL publicly condemn Twitter’s previous management for enabling Hamas and PIJ — or call for an advertiser boycott over it?
Given these facts, one might think that the ADL must have been all over Twitter’s previous management for enabling Hamas over such a long period of time.
That person would be very wrong.
I conducted a Twitter search (archive here) using the string: “@ADL Hamas Twitter” on November 27, 2022.
The result: 3 Tweets condemning Twitter for facilitating Hamas for at least five years — none of which called for an advertiser boycott
UPDATE, December 9, 2022: The ADL has also posted no Tweets about Twitter enabling Hamas’s Quds News Network — for more than ten years
On November 1, 2019, Twitter suspended the Hamas propaganda organ, “Quds News Network” (@QudsNen).
According to the Times of Israel:
Quds News Network, which had more than 630,000 followers on its primary handle, said in a statement: “Placing restrictions on, deleting and blocking accounts is a demonstration of clear bias against Palestinian media and an attack on it.” […]
Asked about the suspended accounts, Twitter told TOI: “There is no place on Twitter for illegal terrorist organizations and violent extremist groups. We have a long history of taking strong enforcement action, using a combination of people, partnerships, and technology.”
Here is the Wikipedia page on Quds News Network.
How much of that rational enforcement action by Twitter was due to the ADL publicly demanding it?
Zero. Here’s proof: On December 9 I did searches on Twitter of the following strings:
- Search: “@ADL @QudsNen”. Result: Nothing.
- Search “@ADL Quds News”. Result: Nothing.
And yet, as of today, Quds News Network (@QudsNen) is not only back on Twitter, it is blue-check-mark verified, has 94,100 followers (for comparison, the ADL has 341,000), and has been on Twitter since 2012:
This archive capture of Quds News Network’s Tweets makes clear that Hamas is using the platform that Twitter provides to spread blood libels against Jews, throughout the world, including this cartoon by a particularly insidious, notorious anti-Semitic artist:
On December 9, 2022 I shared this Tweet and openly challenged the ADL to complain about this incitement being allowed on Twitter. I’ll update this section soon to showcase whether the ADL spoke out:
Paging the @ADL:
Any reaction to this blood libel & global incitement, by a group with nearly 100,000 followers?
I’m guessing… no.
Prove me wrong. https://t.co/LPOlBuE0G6
— Jon Sutz (@JonSutz) December 9, 2022
Turning now to PIJ:
I conducted a Twitter search (archive here) using the string: “@ADL PIJ Twitter” on November 27, 2022.
The result: 1 Tweet condemning Twitter facilitating PIJ — which did not call for an advertiser boycott
I also conducted a Twitter search (archive here) using the string “@ADL Palestinian Islamic Jihad Twitter” on December 1, 2022.
The result: No Tweets condemning Twitter facilitating PIJ
(3.4) A notorious anti-Semitic USC student who Tweeted, “I want to kill every motherfucking Zionist” — and the school announced it would take no action against her. Yet the ADL said nothing about it, anywhere — and the anti-Semite’s Twitter account is still active.
Deep background documentation by Canary Mission on the student’s incitement and justification of anti-Semitic hatred and violence on Twitter is here.
On December 1, 2021, more than 60 UCLA professors published an open letter to the school’s administration, in which they demanded it take action against a Muslim student who recently posted Tweets containing incendiary hate and incitement against Jews and Israel. One of her Tweets read:
“I want to kill every motherf*cking Zionist”
On December 3, 2021 the president of UCLA responded that she would take no action against the student.
On December 14, the story broke in the Daily Mail (UK), and went viral.
On December 18, 2021, Micha Mitch Danzig, the former director of anti-Semitic watchdog StandWithUs’s San Diego branch, addressed this outrage on Twitter:
What if a student had tweeted he wanted to “kill all BLM motherf***ers?
Anyone believe USC’s response to such a disgusting public display of hate & incitement to violence would be so muted?
Double standard by US universities for Jew-hatred has to end.https://t.co/1lDChNNKvp
— Micha Danzig (@DanzigMD) December 18, 2021
Minutes after seeing Micha’s Tweet, I also called out the ADL (among other “social justice” groups), on Twitter, for its failure to say anything about this outrage. I address the ADL in 2/:
Just pretend this was a MAGA cap wearing student, elected to a “diversity & inclusion” board at a major US university, who said & did all this against oh, say, Muslims. Or LGBT people. Or anyone other than… Jews.
Think we’d be hearing about this since 12/14, when it broke?
— Jon Sutz (@JonSutz) December 18, 2021
Here is an archive capture of the ADL’s Tweets from though December 22, 2021, showing it said nothing about this outrage.
In fact, despite my repeatedly calling out the ADL on Twitter over the next year, whenever I saw it complain about comparatively minor alleged anti-Semitic incidents, as of November 26, 2022 — nearly one year later — the ADL has said nothing about this student, or UCLA’s refusal to act, on Twitter, or its website.
This stands in stark contrast to the fact that the ADL routinely condemns right-wing student incitement on US college campuses, and did so during this time period.
The net effect of the ADL’s silence was three-fold:
(1) It sent the signal to US-based students who incite hatred against Jews, and threaten violence against them, on social media, that the ADL will be silent about their actions, so long as they are not white supremacists, right-wingers, or similar.
(2) It send the signal to college administrators and faculty members across America that it’s acceptable to enable students who incite hatred against Jews, and threaten violence against them, so long as they are not white supremacists, right-wingers, or similar
(3) It sent the signal to Twitter’s staff that it is cleared to profit by enabling anti-Semitic hate and threats, so long as they are not white supremacists, right-wingers, or similar
Bonus: As of November 26, 2022, the student’s Twitter account was still active:
Yasmeen Mashayekh (November 1, 2022 archive capture here)
(4) The ADL chronically complains about the need to stand up against misinformation, libel-slander, and incitement — yet it compared America’s border security officers to Nazis
This has been a constant theme of ADL Tweets in recent years. For example:
Anti-Defamation League CEO on decision to restore former Pres. Trump’s account on Twitter: “For Elon Musk to allow Donald Trump back on Twitter… shows he is not remotely serious about safeguarding the platform from hate, harassment and misinformation.” https://t.co/nsMItNiVCu pic.twitter.com/EDk3UUBnuY
— ABC News (@ABC) November 20, 2022
And here is ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt on MSNBC, on November 26, 2022:
Katie Phang asks Anti-Defamation League leader/Obama bro Jonathan Greenblatt how they can “get the reins” on Twitter. He tells Phang that freedom of speech is not freedom to slander.
He said this on MSNBC. pic.twitter.com/lWdW25W71q
— Tim Graham (@TimJGraham) November 27, 2022
Yet here is the ADL using Twitter openly comparing US Customs and Border Protection officers to Nazis:
The practice of writing numbers on arms evokes horrific memories of Nazi concentration camps. We encourage those responsible to find a more sensitive way to appropriately track asylum seekers as they enter the US looking for a better life: https://t.co/o1UeVaIoR5
— ADL (@ADL) December 17, 2018
(5) UPDATES
December 2, 2022
Considering the hypocrisy of the ADL as demonstrated of this page, imagine the smug over-confidence it took for ADL CEO Greenblatt to post this:
Thank you, @elonmusk, for suspending Ye. We urge you to take action on other hate-spreading accounts. Allowing extremists to use @Twitter to spread slander and intolerance could lead to increased harassment and bigotry on and off the platform. https://t.co/3x1cWMCRQK
— Jonathan Greenblatt (@JGreenblattADL) December 2, 2022
In reality, there is probably no single person more responsible for “allowing extremists to use Twitter to spread slander and intolerance,” and as a result, “increasing harassment and bigotry on and off the platform,” than Greenblatt, due to his silent complicity of the most influential extremists among us.
December 2, 2022
See Section 3.2, then consider my rebuttal to ADL CEO Greenblatt’s Tweet:
“Jews right now need allies, not enablers.”
Indeed.
Say, how many times did the @ADL call out Twitter’s previous management for enabling the man whom your research shows is “the most popular anti-Semite in America” — for 11 years? https://t.co/ScfwH0UhfM
— Jon Sutz (@JonSutz) December 2, 2022
December 2, 2022: NY Islamist pleads guilty to violent hate crime against Jewish man; ADL silent
Saadah Masoud is an anti-Semite who’s been openly inciting hatred and violence against Jews and Israel for a long time. On November 26, 2022, Masoud pleaded guilty to federal hate crimes, for violently attacking a Jewish man on an NYC street, because of his religion, and his support of Israel.
Masoud’s arrest on June 29, 2022 for this crime was reported in the NY Post and other conservative and Jewish outlets, and by watchdog groups on Twitter.
The ADL uses Twitter to routinely celebrate white supremacists, neo-Nazis and right-wingers in the USA and beyond who plead guilty to, or are convicted of crimes. Sometimes it posts links to its own investigations of the accused, to help law enforcement agencies investigate and prosecute them. Here is a small sampling, via a search at Twitter of the string “@ADL guilty” (archive capture here):
- ADL celebrates guilty plea of Cameron Shea (USA)
- ADL celebrates guilty plea of Paul Miller (USA)
- ADL celebrates guilty verdict against Golden Dawn (Greece)
Yet as of December 2, 2022, the ADL has said absolutely nothing on Twitter — or its own website — about Masoud’s crimes, or his guilty plea, or how long he has been inciting hatred and violence against Jews:
- A search at Twitter using the string “@ADL Saadah Masoud” produced zero results.
- A search at ADL.org using the string “Saadah Masoud” produced zero results.
This is not an anomaly. As I ‘ve documented on this page and in dozens of instances on Twitter, the ADL almost invariably ignores anti-Semites who are not white supremacists, neo-Nazis or right-wingers.