Elon Musk took a personal tour of the Auschwitz-Birkenau focus camp in southern Poland as he defended his social platform, X, towards accusations of spreading antisemitism.
“It was incredibly moving, and deeply sad and tragic that humans could do this to humans,” the billionaire Tesla Inc. chief and X proprietor stated on Monday of the location — the place an estimated 1.1 million individuals, largely Jews, have been killed by the Nazis throughout World Conflict II.
Musk was seen carrying his son on his shoulders in a photograph of the tour, as he stood alongside Rabbi Menachem Margolin, the chairman of the European Jewish Affiliation, Holocaust survivor Gidon Lev, and Ben Shapiro, a controversial conservative media pundit.
Shapiro later hosted a dialogue with Musk, organized by the EJA in close by Krakow, throughout which Musk championed his social platform, previously Twitter. Play Video
With out making a direct reference to an antisemitic publish that he amplified in November — triggering widespread criticism and a halt to promoting of main manufacturers together with Apple Inc. and Walt Disney Co. — the billionaire issued a mea culpa of kinds.
“Once in a while I’ll do something dumb, for sure,” he stated.
As Musk has fought off prices of amplifying antisemitism, he traveled to Israel in November the place he met with leaders together with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Isaac Herzog, and noticed the websites the place 1,200 individuals have been murdered by Hamas on Oct. 7.
However there was no noticeable change in tone from him, or on X, following the journey. Anti-Muslim and anti-Arab hate has additionally soared on the platform.
On the convention in Krakow, the X proprietor stated he was “frankly naive” in regards to the unfold of antisemitism, reiterating a remark that he himself is “aspirationally Jewish.”
All through their dialog, each Musk and Shapiro recapitulated their views on a lot of hot-button themes. Elite universities had been corrupted, Musk agreed with the influencer. The 2 excoriated variety, fairness and inclusion applications, which Musk known as discriminatory and “fundamentally antisemitic.”
