Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged American billionaire Elon Musk to balance the protection of free speech with combating hate speech on the social media platform "X," which he owns, during their meeting today, Monday. This comes after weeks of controversy over anti-Semitic content on "X." Netanyahu stated during the live-streamed meeting from a Tesla factory in Fremont, California: "I hope you can find, within the bounds of the First Amendment (of the U.S. Constitution), the ability not only to stop anti-Semitism... but any collective hatred towards a people."
Musk responded by saying that he is against anti-Semitism and anything that "promotes hatred and conflict," reiterating his previous statements that "X" does not promote hate speech. He confirmed that "X" is a platform for publishing a variety of individual opinions but that the company will limit the dissemination of some posts that may violate its policies, describing this approach as "freedom of speech, not freedom of reach." He noted that "the biggest opposition he received was from Tesla employees opposing his meeting with Netanyahu."
Musk and Netanyahu also discussed ways to harness the benefits of rapid advancements in artificial intelligence while mitigating its risks to society, a topic Musk and others in the technology industry have raised in recent months.
