Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu kicks off US tour in California to talk to billionaire Elon Musk about anti-Semitism on his social media platform X, while Musk asks him to address justice in Israel Reform issues. The two also discussed artificial intelligence in a sparsely attended livestream event on Monday.
Netanyahu’s high-profile visit to the Bay Area comes as Musk faces accusations of tolerating anti-Semitic messages on his social media platforms and Netanyahu faces political opposition at home and abroad. Earlier on Monday, protesters gathered outside Tesla’s Fremont, Calif., factory where it makes its cars.
At around 9:30 a.m., the live video broadcast between Netanyahu and Tesla CEO began. Netanyahu’s official X account posted that he was having a “one-on-one conversation” with Musk. The number of spectators hovered around 700-800 people.
The two started with a joke about deepfakes and soon began discussing how artificial intelligence would be both a blessing and a curse for humanity.
Netanyahu said an important question about more advanced artificial intelligence is: “How do you get international powers to control this thing?”
He said the first step was for like-minded countries to agree to a code of ethics and behavior to advance interests and “curse the curse”, but said there was still a need to “police the planet” and crack down on rogue actors.
The freestyle conversation, which included jokes between the two, quickly turned to free speech and anti-Semitism, with Netanyahu telling Musk he hoped he could find a way to do so within the confines of the First Amendment. to combat anti-Semitism and other forms of hatred. Social media platform.
“I encourage you and urge you to find a balance. This is a difficult task,” Netanyahu said.
Musk said there were 100 million to 200 million posts on X in a day, “and some of them are going to be bad.” He then reiterated the platform’s policy of not promoting or amplifying hate speech. Under Musk, the former Twitter changed its rules so that offensive posts often weren’t removed, but their visibility was limited so people had to look for it if they wanted to see it. Musk calls it “free speech, not freedom of access.”
Musk faces accusations of tolerating anti-Semitic messages on his social media platforms. The Anti-Defamation League, a prominent Jewish civil rights organization, accused Musk of allowing anti-Semitism and hate speech to spread on X. Its director, Jonathan Greenblatt, said Musk “amplified” neo-Nazi and white supremacist messages. Want to ban the alliance by recently contacting them on X.
In a Sept. 4 post, Musk claimed the alliance was “trying to kill the platform by falsely accusing it and me of being anti-Semitic.” In other posts, he said the alliance was responsible for a 60% drop in X’s revenue . The ADL was one of the coalitions or groups that urged companies to suspend advertising on Twitter last year after Musk acquired the platform. But analysts who track Twitter believe Musk’s chaotic changes to the platform – including abandoning its well-known brand – have led to a decline in advertiser interest.
The group met with X CEO Linda Yaccarino this month. Both Musk and Yacarino have recently posted against anti-Semitism.
On Sunday, Musk tweeted that George Soros’s organization “seems to only want to destroy Western civilization.” Soros, 93, has donated Billions of Dollar His personal fortune turned toward liberalism and anti-authoritarianism reason around the world, making him a favored target for many on the right.Hungarian Americans, or Jews, also became a subject anti-semitic attacks and decades of conspiracy theories.
Netanyahu’s visit was unusually Musk-centric for a world leader. Silicon Valley visits to political dignitaries often include large technology companies such as Apple, Google or Meta.
Netanyahu will travel from California to New York, where he plans to address the United Nations General Assembly and meet with President Joe Biden and other world leaders, his office said. They include German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, South Korean President Yoon Seok-yeol and United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterre Sri Lanka.
Hundreds of thousands of Israelis have participated in nine months of demonstrations against Netanyahu’s plans to reform Israel’s judicial system. The protests have spread abroad, with Israeli diaspora groups holding demonstrations during visits by Netanyahu and other members of his cabinet.
Netanyahu said the judicial reform plan needs to limit the power of unelected judges, who he and his allies describe as liberal and overly interventionist. Critics say his plan is a power grab that will undermine the country’s system of checks and balances and push it toward authoritarian rule.
Leading figures in Israel’s influential high-tech community have played important roles in the protests. They say weakening the judiciary will harm the country’s business environment and drive away foreign investment. Israel’s currency, the shekel, has fallen sharply in value this year due to weak foreign investment.
Netanyahu has downplayed his sweeping reforms as necessary small corrections aimed at curbing what he calls excessive power in the country’s judiciary. Critics say the plan, which includes proposals to control the appointment of the country’s judges, would concentrate power in the hands of Netanyahu and his allies. Netanyahu also made no mention of his corruption trial. Netanyahu has described himself as a victim of a political persecution, and his critics say the reforms are motivated by his anger at the legal system.
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