Musk's gesture embraced by extremists regardless of what he meant

Right-wing extremists are celebrating Elon Musk’s straight-arm gesture during a speech on Tuesday — although his intention wasn't totally clear and some hate watchdogs are saying not to read too much into it

“I just want to say thank you for making it happen,” Musk said during a speech at Capital One Arena on Tuesday, referring to Donald Trump’s victory in the presidential election. Then he slapped his hand on his chest, extended his arm straight outward and upward with his palm facing downwards. He turned around and made a similar gesture facing the other way.

“My heart goes out to you,” he said.

Many social media users noticed that the gesture looked like a Nazi salute. Musk has only fanned the flames of suspicion by not explicitly denying those claims in a dozen posts since, though he did make light of the criticism and lashed out at people making that interpretation.

"The 'everyone is Hitler' attack is sooo tired," Musk posted on X several hours after he left the stage.

Critics and fans alike of the Tesla CEO and world’s richest man were quick to react to the gesture.

"The White Flame will rise again," a chapter of the white nationalist group White Lives Matter posted on Telegram.

"Maybe woke really is dead," white nationalist Keith Woods posted on X.

"Did Elon Musk just Heil Hitler …" right-wing commentator Evan Kilgore posted on X. "We are so back."

The Anti-Defamation League, an antisemitism and human rights watchdog, called it an "awkward gesture" and urged caution in jumping to conclusions. Other extremism monitors and experts pointed out it was unclear what Musk was trying to convey to the crowd of Trump's supporters by thrusting his arm out.

"I’m skeptical it was on purpose," said Jared Holt, a senior research analyst at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, which tracks online hate. "It would be an act of self-sabotage that wouldn’t really make much sense at all."

Holt noted Musk specifically said his heart went out to the crowd. That could indicate a sort of gesture of thanks to them.

Since Musk bought Twitter, now called X, the self-described "free speech absolutist" has faced criticism from hate-speech watchdogs for allowing extremist, dangerous and antisemitic comments to flourish on the social media platform. His response has been to attack his critics, suing one group unsuccessfully after advertisers fled X and threatening to sue another, the Anti-Defamation League, which urged calm at what it called a "delicate moment" in its statement Tuesday.

"It seems that @elonmusk made an awkward gesture in a moment of enthusiasm, not a Nazi salute, but again, we appreciate that people are on edge," the ADL said in a statement. "In this moment, all sides should give one another a bit of grace, perhaps even the benefit of the doubt, and take a breath."

Kurt Braddock, a professor of communication at American University who studies extremism, radicalisation and terrorism, said the gesture was a fascist salute and "people shouldn’t doubt what they saw".

"He’s still blowing it off as though it wasn’t something serious," Braddock said of Musk. "I know what I saw, I know what the response to it was among elements of the extreme right including neo-Nazis, and I see what the reaction is now. And none of it is a laughing matter."

In Europe where the fascist salute is associated with the hate, death and destruction of World War II, Musk's arm gesture elicited outrage.

An Italian communist youth organisation on Wednesday hung an effigy of Musk upside down in Milan’s Piazzale Loreto, where Mussolini’s body was hung upside down after he was executed during the final days of World War II. The organisation, Cambiare Rotta (Change Course), noted in a Facebook post that a photo of the effigy had been removed by the social media company.

"We are correctly a little afraid, because that image is scary," author Filippo Ceccarelli told Italian La7 private television.

Known as the Roman salute in Italy, the straight-arm greeting officially adopted in 1925 by the dictator Benito Mussolini’s fascist regime is banned in Italy, although it is rarely prosecuted.

Musk’s representative in Italy, Andrea Stroppa, published the photo on X with the words: "Roman Empire is back, starting with the Roman salute," according to the news agency ANSA.

He later deleted the post, writing that Musk "is autistic", and was expressing his emotions but denying he was emulating fascism.

"He does not like extremists," Stroppa wrote.

In France on Tuesday, more than 80 associations, including human rights, environmental and press freedom groups left X, though it is unclear if Musk was the trigger or Trump’s inauguration. Several universities and schools left X, too, as well as nationwide and local newspaper on various sides of the political spectrum.

Brian Levin, founder of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino, said even if it was accidental, the gesture Musk did has the power to hurt people.

"When you’re a public figure at the highest echelons of power on Inauguration Day, doing a salute like that is extraordinarily disturbing and it calls for an explanation from Musk," he said. "Points are made about free speech. Well, along with free speech comes responsibility."

Levin said some extremists will take the gesture, regardless of its intent, as "some kind of not-so-subtle marching order".