Neil Young has announced his boycott of X, formerly Twitter, after a tweet considered anti-Semitic was approved of by the platform’s owner Elon Musk.
Last week Musk called a post that accused Jewish people facing anti-Semitism due to the Israel-Hammas war, “the actual truth”.
This led to Young taking to his website to condemn the billionaire's actions with a statement that read: “We are stopping all use of X that we can control.
“For reasons that should be obvious to the richest man on Earth, we are taking action against his company... Tesla should fly flags of love – not hate.”
The offending tweet claimed “western Jewish populations” were disliked by minority groups “flooding their country".
You have said the actual truth
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 15, 2023
“Jewish communties [sic] have been pushing the exact kind of dialectical hatred against whites that they claim to want people to stop using against them", it continued, before adding that Jews encourage “hordes of minorities” to become immigrants.
Musk replied: “You have said the actual truth.”
Since Musk's tweet, he's also received backlash, including major companies, the likes of Apple, IBM and Disney halting advertising on the platform.
The White House also issued a statement which read: “We condemn this abhorrent promotion of anti-Semitic and racist hate in the strongest terms, which runs against our core values as Americans.”
Musk, however, has been characteristically defiant and called the accusations that the tweets were anti-Semitic, “bogus", adding: "I wish only the best for humanity and a prosperous and exciting future for all.”
Young, who also called for peace amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, follows his ongoing boycott of Spotify.
In January 2022, he accused the stream giant of facilitating controversial podcaster Joe Rogan's spread misinformation about Covid-19 vaccines on their platform.
Young said at the time: “I want all my music off their platform … They can have Rogan or Young. Not both.” His boycott is ongoing.
