White House condemns Elon Musk's "promotion of antisemitic and racist hate"

The White House on Friday condemned Elon Musk for backing an antisemitic post on the social media site X this week.

Driving the news: "It is unacceptable to repeat the hideous lie behind the most fatal act of Antisemitism in American history at any time, let alone one month after the deadliest day for the Jewish people since the Holocaust," White House spokesperson Andrew Bates said in a statement.

Catch up quick: Musk responded to a post on his platform this week saying, "You said the actual truth," in response to a post that said Jewish communities support "dialectical hatred against whites."

• Musk then suggested he was primarily talking about the Anti-Defamation League. He did not delete his original reply.

The big picture: Musk has drawn backlash over his post, with more than 160 Jewish rabbis and activists reaffirming their call for large advertisers to stop advertising on X.

• IBM announced Thursday that it was pulling its advertising from X after a report that its ads appeared next to pro-Nazi posts.

What they're saying: "We condemn this abhorrent promotion of Antisemitic and racist hate in the strongest terms, which runs against our core values as American," Bates said.

• "We all have a responsibility to bring people together against hate, and an obligation to speak out against anyone who attacks the dignity of their fellow Americans and compromises the safety of our communities."

The other side: X CEO Linda Yaccarino wrote in a post on Thursday that the company has been "extremely clear about our efforts to combat antisemitism and discrimination."

• "There's no place for it anywhere in the world -- it's ugly and wrong. Full stop," she wrote.
• X did not immediately respond to Axios' request for comment on the White House statement.

Go deeper: Israel's Netanyahu asks Elon Musk to combat antisemitism on X