Auschwitz Memorial slams Elon Musk for rising antisemitism on 'X'

The Auschwitz Memorial on Thursday criticized social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, for failing to remove an antisemitic post on the site.

X's owner Elon Musk has described himself as a free speech absolutist, but some critics have said his approach is irresponsible. Researchers have found an increasing hate speech and antisemitic content on the platform since he took over, and some governments have accused the company of not doing enough to moderate its content.

The Auschwitz Memorial, which preserves the site of the death camp set up by Nazi Germany on the territory of occupied Poland during World War II, said in a post on X that it had reported an antisemitic message on the site but received a response from X that the content did not violate its rules.

The memorial posted screenshots of the post and what it said was X's reply to its complaint.

For @X such antisemitic message:"Still about those disgusting Jews.... Sad that no one talks about the 80 million victims of the second war, they are probably "worse" than this Jewish vermin. May they burn in hell, phooey."is no violation of the Twitter rules. @elonmusk… pic.twitter.com/sJdaGL4xf1

— Auschwitz Memorial (@AuschwitzMuseum) August 17, 2023

X did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

"Leaving such language unchecked perpetuates the cycle of hatred and reinforces the idea that such hateful language is acceptable on this platform," the memorial wrote.

More than 1.1 million people, most of them Jews, perished at the Auschwitz camp in gas chambers or from starvation, cold and disease. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe.

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