Did a right-wing website instigate Elon Musk’s Twitter takeover and his fight with the ADL?
NBC says article laid out ‘playbook’ for Musk and envisioned the ADL as scapegoat for fallout over hate speech
ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt and X CEO Elon Musk. Photo by Getty Images
By Beth Harpaz October 3, 2023
A 2022 article published anonymously on a right-wing website laid out “a playbook” for Elon Musk’s “takeover and transformation of Twitter,” and accurately predicted his slugfest with the Anti-Defamation League, NBC News said.
The article was published nearly seven months before Musk acquired Twitter on Oct. 27, 2022.
The article was recommended to Musk in a series of texts from an unknown sender on April 4, 2022, NBC reported Monday. The texts were included as evidence in a lawsuit Twitter brought against Musk when he initially tried to renege on buying the platform.
The article said that by “restoring genuine free speech” on the platform, Musk “would do more for patriotic Americans than the GOP taking back the White House in 2024” by causing “the American regime as we know it to crumble.”
Predicting the future of Twitter
The article laid out four predictions for what would happen if Musk acquired Twitter and restored the accounts of users like former President Donald Trump and others who promoted conspiracy theories and hate speech. (Musk ultimately did restore thousands of accounts, and also removed moderation protocols that previously curtailed hate speech.)
First, the article predicted, the platform would be blamed for “every so-called act of ‘racism,’ ‘sexism’ and ‘transphobia’” posted by its users. Next, a “coordinated pressure campaign” from nonprofits like the ADL would criticize the proliferation of hate speech and ask “the company to change its ways.”
That would lead to an “exodus of the bluechecks,” meaning celebrities, journalists and activists with verified accounts would leave the platform, followed by an “exodus of advertisers.” Finally, Twitter — which Musk has renamed X — would be “deplatformed,” the article predicted, meaning that it would be low-ranked by Google, links would be banned by other social media and media outlets, and app stores would remove it.
Although Twitter has lost users, advertisers and credibility since Musk took over, it has not been deplatformed.
Who is Darren Beattie?
The article’s publisher, revolver.news, is run by Darren Beattie, a far-right blogger who was fired in 2018 as a speechwriter from the Trump White House for speaking at a conference attended by white nationalists. Beattie also falsely claimed that FBI agents had provoked the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.
The ADL has a history with Beattie, who calls himself a “proud Jew” in his X profile. In 2020, ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt asked the Trump administration to rescind its appointment of Beattie to the Commission for the Preservation of America’s Heritage Abroad, which identifies and reports on historic sites in Central and Eastern Europe, including places where Jews were murdered during the Holocaust. The Biden administration forced Beattie off the commission in 2022, four months before the revolver.news article was published.
After the article was published, Beattie appeared on podcasts and TV shows hosted by right-wing figures like Steve Bannon and Tucker Carlson to advocate for Musk’s purchase of Twitter as a “declaration of war on the regime.”
Asked who wrote the article and who sent the texts to Musk promoting it, Beattie told NBC: “I think I’m familiar with it, but I’m not in a position to comment on that. I wish I could give you something else, but you should look into the ADL.”
Musk and the ADL
In response to a request for comment from the Forward, the ADL said: “As a matter of policy, we do not comment on potential litigation.” The organization was referring to Musk’s threat to sue the ADL for defamation to the tune of $4 billion. Musk claims a 60% drop in ad revenue on X was brought on by the ADL’s criticism. Musk also took part in a #BantheADL campaign on X, amplifying posts by extremists.
The revolver.news article referred to the ADL as a “danger” to Musk’s ownership and one of the “powerful left-wing activist groups” that “besieged” Twitter before Musk’s purchase. It also claimed that Greenblatt “brought Twitter to heel” in the past by suggesting in essence (but not saying outright) that if Musk didn’t “play ball,” he’d be vilified as being “in league with Nazis.”
NBC postulated that Musk, who spent $44 billion to buy Twitter, “adopted” the ideas presented in the article.
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