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Elon Musk made his most brazen overture to white nationalists yet on Monday, tweeting about the “white genocide” conspiracy theory in South Africa.
In response to a video of South Africa’s Economic Freedom Fighters party posted by right-wing influencer and serial plagiarist Benny Johnson, Musk tweeted, “They are openly pushing for genocide of white people in South Africa.” The video shows members of the party singing a “struggle song” that features the lyrics “shoot to kill, kill the Boer, kill the farmer.” A court ruled last August that the song was not hate speech, and that the lyrics were not meant to be taken literally.
Almost immediately, white nationalists praised Musk for taking up their cause:
“Elon Musk bringing attention to White Genocide,” white nationalist influencer Nick Fuentes wrote on Telegram, accompanied by an emoji of an excited Pepe.
Patrick Casey, founder of the neo-Nazi group “Identity Evropa,” tweeted, “In 2016 South African white genocide was a fringe issue—now, the richest man in the world, who also owns Twitter, is drawing attention to it. Things are moving in the right direction!”
Gab founder Andrew Torba, who tried to get prominent anti-semites to come to his platform, praised Musk as well, tweeting, “Took us under a year to get [Musk] talking about White genocide. Give it another six months and he’ll be noticing and naming.”
“Elon calling out white genocide in South Africa Good for him,” wrote former Trump administration staffer Darren J. Beattie on Twitter. Beattie was fired from his post after a CNN investigation revealed that he had spoken alongside prominent white nationalists at a conference in 2016.
Fuentes’ former colleague Jaden McNeil posted a screenshot of the tweet on Instagram.
Musk has previously pleased the far-right by welcoming them onto Twitter with the justification of protecting free speech. He also inched closer to white supremacist stances by tweeting about contorted “Black crime” statistics and other classic white supremacist dog whistles. Musk, however, had not completely aligned himself with white supremacists—after letting white nationalist Nick Fuentes and neo-Nazi Andrew Anglin back on Twitter earlier this year, he let their accounts be re-suspended for platform violations.
His tweeting about white genocide in South Africa suggests he’s willing to go even further to align with people who are not just far-right but openly white supremacist in their politics.
Even though “white genocide” in South Africa has been fully debunked as a manipulation of tragic anecdotes that don’t indicate a meaningful trend, it’s become a persistent cause for white supremacists over the last decade. Versions of the theory were cited as justification for the Christchurch, El Paso, and Buffalo mass shootings, which were carried out by white supremacists.
Musk’s tweet may add an unusual level of credibility to the conspiracy theory—which, aside from briefly being highlighted by Trump in 2018, usually sits on the fringes of mainstream discourse.
