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(2) The Facts: The evidence that proves the war that the ADL instigated against Elon Musk was based on false and wildly decontextualized allegations

By Jon Sutz

June 30, 2024

Continued from  (1) Introduction: What is publicly known about the ADL, and the war it instigated against Twitter — eight days after Elon Musk took control of the site

 

Contents

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(1) Since the 1980s, the ADL has documented and denounced the hatred and incitement of the man it calls “America’s Most Popular Anti-Semite”: Louis Farrakhan

(2) In March 2011, Twitter’s previous management allowed Farrakhan to create an account, and over the next eleven years, to post all manner of anti-Semitic, racist and anti-LGBT hatred — and to amass nearly 400,000 followers

(3) In 2015 and 2016, Twitter’s previous management allowed Farrakhan to upload and publish videos that explicitly incited racist violence. Less than five hours after he uploaded one such video in July 2016, one of his followers went on a racist murder spree, that took the lives of five Texas police officers. Over the next nine months, two more of his followers did the same thing.

(4) Twitter’s previous management allowed the incitement video that Farrakhan uploaded on July 7, 2016 to remain posted for more than six years — and to amass 393,600 views

(5) The ADL has never published a single Tweet, or item on its website, that denounced Twitter’s previous management for (a) allowing Farrakhan to upload the video that preceded the three racist murder sprees by his followers — or (b) allowing it to remain publicly-visible for the next six years

(6) The ADL also has never published a single Tweet, or item on its website, that (a) denounced Twitter’s previous management for choosing to profit by enabling Farrakhan since March 2011 — or (b) called for an advertiser boycott of the site, because of it

(7) Even after Twitter allowed Farrakhan to refer to Jews as “Satanic” and “termites,” then publicly announced its intent to continue enabling him, the ADL tacitly endorsed this decision

(8) Contrast the ADL’s silence regarding Twitter’s decision to profit by enabling Farrakhan, and never holding its advertisers to account, to the hyper-partisan crusades it engages in, regarding issues that have absolutely nothing to do with defending Jews (including, ironically, a quest to publicly destroy an orthodox Jew)

(9) By all these acts and omissions, for more than eleven years the ADL served as the premier de facto Jewish protector of (a) Twitter’s decision to enable “America’s Most Popular Anti-Semite” — and (b) its advertisers to profit from this decision

(10) UPDATE, July 24, 2024: The ADL declared “It is dangerous to give anyone who actively promotes… antisemitic vitriol and dangerous conspiracy series a platform” — but not about Farrakhan

 

(1) Since the 1980s, the ADL has documented and denounced the hatred and incitement of the man it calls “America’s Most Popular Anti-Semite”: Louis Farrakhan

The ADL has an extremely proficient research department, as evidenced by the fact that in 2020, two years before it declared war on Twitter, it published a report (on its website — not on Twitter) that gave substantive reasons why it designated Farrakhan, “America’s Most Popular Anti-Semite.”

Many years earlier, however, the ADL began chronicling Farrakhan’s hatred and incitement, in extreme detail.  For example, in 2019 the ADL compiled some of these items into a report, “Farrakhan In His Own Words,” which supplemented its earlier documentation.

Per research by the ADL (and other Jewish watchedogs), here are some of Farrakhan’s words through the years, which have often been delivered to massive crowds, the videos of which were then posted online:

“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

“[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

“You [Jews] are wicked deceivers of the American people. You have sucked their blood. You are not real Jews, those of you that are not real Jews. You are the synagogue of Satan, and you have wrapped your tentacles around the U.S. government, and you are deceiving and sending this nation to hell.”

— February 25, 1996 sermon

“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

To its credit, the ADL’s CEO, Jonathan Greenblatt, has publicly denounced (a) Farrakhan’s anti-Semitism, and calls for violence, and (b) anyone who tries to minimize his incitement and hatred.  In October 2015, for example, Greenblatt (at the time the ADL’s National Director) published an editorial in the Washington Post, in which he said:

At a promotional event in Milwaukee in August, Farrakhan said, “White people deserve to die, and they know, so they think it’s us coming to do it.” In July in Miami, he told a crowd, “If the federal government will not intercede in our affairs, then we must rise up and kill those who kill us, stalk them and let them feel the pain of death that we are feeling.

But many people of good will seem to be willing to ignore or overlook Farrakhan’s hate speech, dismissing it as tangential to his main messages. That is a mistake. As a society, we ignore such hate at our peril.”

Clearly, the ADL has known for many years exactly who and what Farrakhan is, and the threat he poses — not just to Jews, but to those who do not fit into the categories of people whom he deems acceptable.

See Sections 3.1 and 5 on the primary Resource Page for detailed documentation about Farrakhan’s incitement of anti-Semitic, racist and anti-LGBT hatred and violence.

 

(2) In March 2011, Twitter’s previous management allowed Farrakhan to create an account, and over the next eleven years, to post all manner of anti-Semitic, racist and anti-LGBT hatred — and to amass nearly 400,000 followers

See @LouisFarrakhan.

Note that as of September 2022, shortly before Musk took over the site, Twitter’s previous management had allowed Farrakhan to amass 376,000 followers. For comparison, as of June 2022, the ADL — which established its Twitter account in 2009, two years before Farrakhan — had only 343,000 followers.

This screencap was taken on November 28, 2022 — one month after Musk took control of Twitter.

 

 

(3) In 2015 and 2016, Twitter’s previous management allowed Farrakhan to upload and publish videos that explicitly incited racist violence. Less than five hours after he uploaded one such video in July 2016, one of his followers went on a racist murder spree, that took the lives of five Texas police officers. Over the next nine months, two more of his followers did the same thing.

As noted above, in July and August, 2015, Farrakhan delivered two public sermons to massive audiences, the videos of which he posted to social media (including Twitter), in which he said:

“We must rise up and kill those who kill us!”

“White people deserve to die! They know!”

Watch the videos of both incidents, and learn more about them in Section 3.3 on the main Resource Page.

On July 7, 2016 at 4:10pm, Twitter allowed Farrakhan to upload* a 2-minute video directly to Twitter, in which he said:

“There is no freedom without the shedding of blood! […] When you are willing and not afraid anymore to pay the price for freedom — don’t let this white man tell you that violence is wrong! Every damn thing that he got, he got it by being violent — killing people, raping and robbing and murdering!”

(*As opposed to posting a link to an external video, as Farrakhan did in previous cases, of links to YouTube. In this case, Twitter allowed him to upload this video directly to the site, which then hosted it, meaning that it unlike links to YouTube videos, which requires the viewer to hit the play button to watch them, in the case of “native” videos on Twitter, the automatically play as soon as a user sees it.)

Here is the Tweet (archive; screencap):

Here is an archived version of the video.

At 8:58pm on July 7 — less than five hours after Farrakhan posted the Tweet containing that video — one of his followers, Micah Xavier Johnson, went on a racist murder spree that left five Dallas, TX police officers dead, and another seven injured.

The Texas police officers whom Johnson murdered, from left: Officer Patrick Zamarripa, Senior Corporal Michael Krol, Officer Brent Thompson, Sergeant Michael Smith, and Senior Corporal Lorne Ahrens,

The following day, The Blaze — one of America’s most widely-read conservative websites — reported the fact that this shooting rampage (a) was perpetrated by a Farrakhan follower, and (b) it occurred less than five hours after Farrakhan posted his incitement video to Twitter:

Hours Before Officers Were Gunned Down in Dallas, Louis Farrakhan Posted This Shocking Message of Racism and Violence – The Blaze, July 8, 2016.

Over the next week, numerous US and Israeli news and watchdog organizations reported on Johnson being a Farrakhan follower, including ABC News, the Southern Poverty Law Center, the Daily Beast, and the Times of Israel, among others.

On July 17, ten days after Johnson’s racist massacre, another one of Farrakhan’s followers, Gavin Eugene Long, went on a racist shooting spree against police officers, killing three:

Baton Rouge Shooter Gavin Eugene Long Was Nation Of Islam Member, Railed Against ‘Crackers’ On YouTube Channel [VIDEO], Chuck Ross, Daily Caller, July 17, 2016

Police shooter once Nation of Islam, committed to ‘religion of justice’ – Christian Examiner, July 18, 2016

Nine months later, in April 2017, another one of Farrakhan’s followers, Kori Ali Muhammad, went on a racist murder spree, killing four:

Suspect in Fresno shooting rampage spoke about racial conflict and black nationalism – Los Angeles Times, April 18, 2017. Excerpt:

Brian Levin, director of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at Cal State San Bernardino, says many of Muhammad’s social media postings reference terms used by the Nation of Islam, which has been labeled a racist hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. Pointing to Muhammad’s repeated references to “white devils” and “Yakub,” the villainous figure responsible for creating white people, according to Nation of Islam lore, Levin says it is likely Muhammad thought he was taking part in a race war.

See more details of these three Farrakhan-inspired racist murder sprees in Section 3.3 on the main Resource Page.

 

(4) Twitter’s previous management allowed the incitement video that Farrakhan uploaded on July 7, 2016 to remain posted for more than six years — and to amass 393,600 views

The video that Farrakhan uploaded to Twitter on July 7, 2016 was still posted as of April 19, 2022 — nearly six years later — by which point it had been viewed 393,600 times.  This was six months before Elon Musk took control of Twitter, on October 27, 2022:

This video was still available on X as of September 22, 2023.  In case X finally decides to take the video down, here is an archived version of it.

 

(5) The ADL has never published a single Tweet, or item on its website, that denounced Twitter’s previous management for (a) allowing Farrakhan to upload the video that preceded the three racist murder sprees by his followers — or (b) allowing it to remain publicly-visible for the next six years

In summary:

  • As documented in Section 3.7 on the Resource Page, there are are several methods of searching Twitter to see if a user posted anything containing specific words, or mentioning other users.
  • Using these methods — and capturing archives of these searches, as well as screencaps, etc. — proves that the ADL has never said a word about Twitter allowing Farrakhan to upload to the site on July 7, 2016, or the three racist mass murders that his followers perpetrated, the first of which began less than five hours later

Highlights:

On Twitter, the search string “from:@ADL Louis Farrakhan Micah Xavier Johnson” returns zero results:

Further, the search string “from:@ADL Twitter Farrakhan video murder” also returned zero results:

Similarly, searches at the ADL’s website, ADL.org, shows it also never posted a single item that mentioned this video, or denounced Twitter’s previous management for allowing Farrakhan to upload it:

At ADL.org, search the string “Farrakhan no freedom without the shedding of blood” (September 23, 2023 archive version here): Zero relevant results.

At ADL.org, search the string “Louis Farrakhan Micah Xavier Johnson” (September 15, 2023 archive version here): Zero results:

 

(6) The ADL also has never published a single Tweet, or item on its website, that (a) denounced Twitter’s previous management for choosing to profit by enabling Farrakhan since March 2011 — or (b) called for an advertiser boycott of the site, because of it

This fact is documented in detail in Section 3.6 on the Resource Page.

The reader can validate this for themselves, via the following searches:

On Twitter:

Search the string “from:@ADL Farrakhan Twitter”

Results: Zero returns

On ADL.org:

Search the string “Farrakhan Twitter”

Results: Zero relevant returns; the only items that appear are related to Farrakhan and Twitter, independent of one another, deep within the body of content of the ADL’s Congressional testimony and reports

See the detailed evidence of this in part 3 of Section 3.6 on the Resource Page.

All of these facts reveal the truth of how grievously the ADL has been betraying its own supposed principle:

“[Social media] platforms should not be supplying the megaphone for hate and antisemitism.”

– Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of ADL

 

(7) Even after Twitter allowed Farrakhan to refer to Jews as “Satanic” and “termites,” then publicly announced its intent to continue enabling him, the ADL tacitly endorsed this decision

Despite knowing exactly who and what Louis Farrakhan is, and does, in the summer and fall of 2018, Twitter’s previous management continued allowing him to post Tweets containing his hatred of Jews, and other forms of hate.

This Tweet (archive) is from June 6, 2018:

And in this Tweet (archive) is from October 16, 2018:

 

Despite these Tweets, and all the above evidence, Twitter’s previous management openly declared its intent to continue enabling him

 

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.

Twitter shrugs off Louis Farrakhan ‘anti-Termite’ Tweet about Jewish people, The Washington Examiner, October 17, 2018.

 

What did the ADL have to say about Twitter’s decision, to continue profiting by enabling “America’s Most Popular Anti-Semite”?

Nothing on its website. Nothing on its Twitter feed.

The only thing the ADL said, to a Jewish website, is that Twitter should take down Farrakhan’s “termite” Tweet.

Here’s the proof:

An October 26, 2023 search at ADL.org using the string “Twitter Farrakhan termite” (archive) returned zero results:

And a search at Twitter the same day using the string “from:@ADL Farrakhan termite“ also returned zero results:

In a bizarre twist, however, a Google search of “ADL Farrakhan termite” reveals one primary reference that pertains to Twitter’s decision: A comment that ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt made to the Jewish Journal on October 17, 2018, in which he urged Twitter only to take down the “termite” Tweet:

Read the article at:

ADL: Twitter Should Take Down Farrakhan Tweet Comparing Jews to ‘Termites,’ Jewish Journal, October 17, 2018

Note, however, what Greenblatt did not say in that article: That Twitter should ban Farrakhan altogether, so that it — and its advertisers — would stop profiting from his hatred, the ADL’s alleged pretext for declaring war on Twitter, eight days after Elon Musk took control of the site (the ADL’s “StopHateForProfit” campaign).

This tacit but de facto endorsement of Twitter continuing to profit from enabling Farrakhan stands in stark contrast to the fact that, according to Elon Musk’s initial review of internal data, the ADL “pushed hard” for Twitter to shut down the account of orthodox Jewish blogger Chaya Raichik (the ADL’s all-out war to publicly destroy Raichik is documented here)

 

(8) Contrast the ADL’s silence regarding Twitter’s decision to profit by enabling Farrakhan, and never holding its advertisers to account, to the hyper-partisan crusades it engages in, regarding issues that have absolutely nothing to do with defending Jews (including, ironically, a quest to publicly destroy an orthodox Jew)

One might reasonably ask at this point:

“Well, if the ADL won’t mount a public campaign to expose and condemn Twitter’s previous management’s decision to enable Farrakhan for eleven years, and ask advertisers to boycott the site until it stops, what sorts of public campaigns does it engage in?

Here’s a sampling:

  • Declaring that the “OK” hand sign is a symbol of white supremacy (details here)
  • Falsely claiming that a Florida law that protects 5-9 year olds from being subjected to any sexual/gender indoctrination in schools — discriminates and incites hatred against the LGBT community (details here)
  • Scolding America to “avoid cultural appropriation, cultural stereotypes, and costumes that perpetuate gender norms”… on Halloween (details here)
  • Championing the cause of illegal aliens (whom the ADL falsely refers to as “immigrants,” and compares to Holocaust victims), and rejecting demands that every one be tested for COVID and other communicable diseases (details here)
  • Condemning conservatives who express critical views on health-related and election-integrity issues — while ignoring Democrats, prominent leftist propagandists, and mainstream media entities that do these exact same things, and much worse (details here)

The documentation to validate these five examples, plus more than a dozen others, is located at:

The ADL’s diversions into unrelated issues, and hyper-political activism on Twitter, Part 1

The most notable crusade in which the ADL engaged, however, was a 2022 war it instigated to publicly destroy orthodox Jewish blogger Chaya Raichik (aka LibsOfTikTok).

This crusade comprises many moving parts and controversial issues, and is quite complex.  For this reason, I’ve assembled all of my source evidence, in sequence and context, on this resource page:

The ADL’s crusade to destroy Jewish blogger Chaya Raichik

For a briefer on Raichik, how she got started in blogging, and the price she’s paid for it, see this 7:30 long March 2023 interview by Megyn Kelly:

In summary, the ADL’s war against Raichik consisted of it falsely claiming, in public:

  • That she was peddling falsehoods about the people and organizations she addressed in her citizen journalism
  • That she was inciting threats and violence against them
  • That she called the LGBT community, as a whole, “evil” (when it knew that she was referring to the radical minority, particularly those that do things like this, this and this to young children and advocate for/perform sex-change surgery on adolescents, etc.)

It must be noted that the ADL began its crusade to destroy Raichik five months after it knew the following facts — yet said absolutely nothing:

  • She had been doxxed* by the Washington Post, which NBC News soon cheered, and morally justified (*“doxxing” is publishing a person’s private, non-public information as a means of intimidating them into silence, and inciting others to stalk and harass them, both online and in-person)
  • She and her family had to flee their homes after this doxxing, and was being subjected to an escalating online harassment and threat campaign — which she claims Twitter’s previous management knowingly facilitated
  • She had been libeled by various “news” organizations and “fact-checkers,” which claimed she’d falsely accused several children’s hospitals were offering sex-reassignment surgery for minors — even though she and others showcased the proof from said hospitals’ own websites, videos, and audio recordings (details here)

It must also be noted that the ADL’s silence regarding what was being done to Raichik was a complete betrayal of its public statements, that:

  • Condemn the doxxing of Jews, women, and other “vulnerable communities”
  • Recognize how “online hate [can] fuel offline violence”
  • Showcase how influential figures can “act as a compass, guiding activists towards targets for harassment and protest”

Specifically, from this ADL policy statement (edited for brevity):

“We all deserve to feel safe online… we’re seeing a major increase in bigots and extremists taking advantage of the world wide web to target women… Jews, and other vulnerable groups… [I]ndividuals with malicious intentions can post people’s personal information for harassment. Dangerous bad actors are publishing… [the] home addresses of people they want to hurt…[including] Jewish small business owners…“

Finally, after the Post and other “news” organizations repeatedly libeled and whipped up a frenzy of hatred against Raichik for five months, the ADL broke its silence — by joining in the the crusade to destroy her. In the ADL’s September 16, 2022 “report,” the ADL repeated previously-debunked smears against Raichik, the ADL claimed she is…

“…[the most] influential inciter of hate than the anti-LGBTQ community” (paraphrasing), and “essentially acts as a compass, guiding… activists towards targets for harassment and protest.”

The ADL said this even though it knew, as the evidence shows, Raichik had never called for anyone to harass or protest any person or organization.

And the ADL did this while refusing to (a) condemn Twitter’s decision to enable and profit from Farrkahan, or (b) call for advertisers to boycott the site, because of it — for more than eleven years.

A comprehensive, chronological presentation of the evidence concerning the ADL’s crusade to destroy Raichik is located at:

The ADL’s crusade to destroy Jewish blogger Chaya Raichik

UPDATE, October 28, 2023: After Raichik threatened to sue the ADL if it didn’t remove her from its “Glossary of Extremists” directory by October 31.  The ADL finally relented.

 

(9) By all these acts and omissions, for more than eleven years the ADL served as the premier de facto Jewish protector of (a) Twitter’s decision to enable “America’s Most Popular Anti-Semite” — and (b) its advertisers’ ability to profit from this decision

With facts (1)-(8) in mind, we now have an evidence-based, contextual framework from which to evaluate the legitimacy of:

  • The ADL’s decision to instigate this war against Twitter, barely a week after Elon Musk took control of it
  • The ADL’s claim that it instigated this war due to its “profound concern about antisemitism and hate on the platform”

These three graphic timelines summarize the key facts that place into further context the ADL’s acts of betrayal, misdirection and outright lies — particularly its claim that it “fights antisemitism, hate, and extremism across all platforms and regardless of party or ideology”:

The reality, as the facts in this report demonstrate, is that at least as far as Twitter goes, Louis Farrakhan could not have found a more potent, ironic enabler than the ADL — a role that it played for more than eleven years.

(10) UPDATE, July 24, 2024: The ADL declared “It is dangerous to give anyone who actively promotes… antisemitic vitriol and dangerous conspiracy series a platform” — but not about Farrakhan

On July 23, 2024, it was discovered that an event organized by a Trump supporter, and to feature a live appearance by Donald Trump, Jr, was also promoted as featuring Candace Owens, a black conservative who recently began peddling anti-Semitic conspiracy theories and incitement.

The ADL, rightfully condemned this event. The next day, the ADL posted this follow-up (screencap; archive), after it became known that Owens was removed from the speaker lineup:

Curiously, it has still not called for Twitter (now X) to remove the platform it’s given to the man the ADL declared “America’s Most Popular Anti-Semite” — for 13 years:

Why the different treatment by the ADL? On the surface, there is only one substantive difference:

  • Louis Farrakhan is a black radical leftist, and a Muslim supremacist (Islamist)
  • Candace Owens is a black far-right propagandist

Previously:

Preface: A concept-framing thought experiment

(1) Introduction: The facts that are publicly known about the ADL, and the war it instigated against Twitter — eight days after Elon Musk took control of the site

See the master directory and descriptions of all of supporting documentation resource pages here.

This report is the first in a series.