NEW YORK - Elon Musk threatened on Nov 18 to sue media watchdog Media Matters and those who attacked his social media platform X, following moves by several large US companies to halt advertising on the site after being promoted alongside anti-Semitic content.

Mr Musk and X have been under a microscope all week for anti-Semitic and racist content that has proliferated on the site since he purchased it in 2022.

Liberal watchdog group Media Matters for America said earlier this week that it found ads from IBM, Apple and others were placed alongside content promoting Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party.

Mr Musk on Wednesday endorsed an anti-Semitic post on X that falsely claimed members of the Jewish community were stoking hatred against white people, drawing sharp condemnation, including from the White House.

“The split second court opens on Monday, X Corp will be filing a thermonuclear lawsuit against Media Matters and all those who colluded in this fraudulent attack on our company,” Mr Musk wrote in a post on X, without naming any other parties.

Numerous companies suspended ads in the last two days, including IBM, Disney, Warner Bros Discovery and Comcast, Lions Gate Entertainment and Paramount Global. Axios reported that Apple, the world’s largest company by market value, would do the same.

“This week, Media Matters for America posted a story that completely misrepresented the real experience on X, in another attempt to undermine freedom of speech and mislead advertisers,” a statement posted by Mr Musk said. He accused Media Matters of creating an alternative account designed to “misinform advertisers” about their posts.

Media Matters on Nov 18 said Mr Musk was a “bully” who threatens “meritless lawsuits”.

“Musk admitted the ads at issue ran alongside the pro-Nazi content we identified,” Media Matters president Angelo Carusone said, in a statement.

“If he does sue us, we will win.”

Mr Musk has threatened legal action against other parties in the past, most specifically the Anti-Defamation League, a nonprofit organisation that fights anti-Semitism, blaming it for X’s loss of ad revenue. He has not yet sued the ADL, however.

Advertisers have fled the site since Mr Musk bought it in October 2022 and reduced content moderation, resulting in a sharp rise in hate speech, according to civil rights groups.

The White House on Nov 17 condemned Mr Musk’s endorsement of what it called a “hideous” anti-Semitic conspiracy theory, and accused Mr Musk of an “abhorrent promotion of antisemitic and racist hate” that “runs against our core values as Americans”.

Mr Musk is also chief executive officer of electric carmaker Tesla, which has been hit by several lawsuits that allege rampant racial or sexual harassment of workers.

Anti-Semitism has been on the rise in recent years in the United States and worldwide. Following the outbreak of war between Israel and Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, which attacked Israel on Oct 7, anti-Semitic incidents in the United States rose by nearly 400 per cent from the year-earlier period, the ADL said. REUTERS