Independent journalist and Twitter Files contributor Michael Shellenberger reports that nongovernmental agencies (NGOs) leading the recent advertiser boycott of X/Twitter have a history of receiving money from and spying for governments. The groups include the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH), and the Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD). There is concern surrounding the ADL’s advertiser boycott that it is an effort by governments to regain the ability to censor users on X/Twitter that was lost when Elon Musk took over last November. The previously mentioned groups lack good evidence to prove that online hate speech directly correlates to “hate-motivated violence,” or that censorship prevents it. The ADL, in its goal to stop “the defamation of the Jewish people,” has justified unrelated censorial advocacy work using the legacy of antisemitism and the Holocaust. Their attempt to speak for all Jewish people may be inadvertently fueling antisemitism.
