🌅 Today’s stat: 21

Author

Sunrise Stat
January 30, 2025

21 - The number of Jewish groups leaving X over the rise in toxic speech on the platform and owner Elon Musk’s reposting of antisemitic and xenophobic content.
SOURCE
WHAT TO KNOW

  • The coalition of groups say they’ll stop actively posting on X, though some may maintain accounts to ensure their handles aren’t assumed by others. Earlier this month, more than 60 German universities announced their departure from X, as did Germany’s foreign and defense ministries.

WHY IT MATTERS

  • The decision comes a week after Musk delivered what scholars and rights groups say was a Nazi salute during a speech following President Trump’s inauguration. It also comes just days after Musk appeared at an event for Germany’s far-right AfD party, telling the crowd: “It’s good to be proud of German culture, German values, and not to lose that in some sort of multiculturalism that dilutes everything.”

CONNECT THE DOTS

  • Recent research focused specifically on social media content after Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel found X is by far the largest purveyor of content that denies or distorts the events of the attack, accounting for 47.3% of such posts in the data set, more than twice as much as the next two platforms, Facebook (22%) and TikTok (17.3%). A new survey by AP-NORC also found a majority of Americans (52%) now have an unfavorable opinion of Musk, while a third (36%) have a favorable view.