Elon Musk, owner of X, formerly known as Twitter, slammed Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei on Sunday on the platform after he tweeted a video of Israeli civilians at a music festival running away from Hamas terrorists who infiltrated the country.
Khamenei posted the video with the caption: "God willing, the cancer of the usurper Zionist regime will be eradicated at the hands of the Palestinian people and the Resistance forces throughout the region."
Musk responded by writing: "Khamenei’s official position is clear that the eradication of Israel is the actual goal, not just supporting Palestinians.
"That will not happen. All that actually happens, decade after decade, is a never-ending cycle of violence and vengeance. Stoking the fires of hatred isn’t working. Perhaps it is time to consider something else."
Khamenei’s official position is clear that the eradication of Israel is the actual goal, not just supporting Palestinians.That will not happen. All that actually happens, decade after decade, is a never-ending cycle of violence and vengeance.Stoking the fires of hatred isn’t… https://t.co/ffNuY9AgAC
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 8, 2023
The Iranian leader's original post has "violated the X Rules," the platform stated. "However, X has determined that it may be in the public’s interest for the post to remain accessible."
"Khamenei’s official position is clear that the eradication of Israel is the actual goal, not just supporting Palestinians."
Elon Musk
Musk also deleted posts relating to the conflict
The same day, Musk posted on his account recommending accounts to follow for coverage of Operation Swords of Iron to his 160 million followers.
Shortly after posting, people began criticizing Musk for recommending the accounts, as both users in the past had posted questionable content on the platform. The first user posted antisemitic content and the second user had been criticized as anti-Palestinian.
Elon Musk lauds this bigot as a good source of information, part Infiniti pic.twitter.com/n318hVaJaW
— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) October 8, 2023
CNN journalist Jake Tapper, regarding the user Musk promoted who made antisemitic statements, said that Musk "lauds this bigot as a good source of information, part Infiniti."
Musk then later retracted his recommendation for following the account @WarMonitors, criticizing the user over the description of the words "martyr" and "murder" in order to report accurate information.
“Martyrs” is not an objective or accurate word, nor is “murdered”.The former implies dying for a cause in battle and the latter implies a deliberate attempt to kill those specific people.While reporting both sides is fair, please use maximally accurate words or I must…
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 8, 2023
Musk later wrote: "As always, please try stay as close to the truth as possible, even for stuff you don’t like. This platform aspires to maximize signal/noise of the human collective."
Musk last month met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in California, where he also gave the Israeli leader a tour of the Tesla factory.