A group of 17 Jewish House Democrats requested on Friday that House Republicans “take immediate action to address the unacceptable and dangerous rise in antisemitism on the social media platform X,” formerly Twitter, and accused the company of violating U.S. sanctions law.

The lawmakers, led by Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY), wrote to House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), asking him to instruct House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY) to call a hearing with X owner Elon Musk and other company officials on the platform’s “profiteering and amplification of antisemitic content” and provision of premium account services to U.S.-designated terrorist groups.

“Such a hearing would be a critical first step in combating the alarming rise of antisemitism and the influence of foreign terrorist groups in the United States,” the lawmakers said in the letter.

Musk has become a prominent backer of former President Donald Trump and attended Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s address to Congress as a guest of the Israeli leader.

The lawmakers accused X of taking a “blasé attitude toward the pervasive and growing problem on its platform — which either represents a lack of concern, or, more nefariously, a tacit endorsement.”

The lawmakers said that several of them have written to both X and Comer about their concerns but have received “unsatisfactory answers from X and deafening silence from Chairman Comer.”

The letter argues that X’s previous selling of premium account services to Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah and deputy Secretary-General Naim Qassem, both U.S.-designated terrorists, was prohibited under U.S. law.

They separately noted that other U.S.-sanctioned entities including Iran’s Press TV and Russia’s Tinkoff Bank also previously appeared to have paid premium accounts on the site.

The lawmakers emphasized that the premium accounts were, per X policies, eligible to receive a share of advertising revenue from X in addition to additional features on X.

The letter also highlights that paid premium accounts on X have spread Hamas propaganda videos produced and published elsewhere by Hamas itself, featuring graphic scenes of Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks on Israel. 

The Democrats said that “there are clear indicators that X has profited off the spread of Hamas’s terrorist propaganda,” both through subscription fees from the accounts sharing the content, as well as ads displayed in replies to posts containing Hamas propaganda materials.

They cited reports that X had been running advertisements on “a litany of unmistakably antisemitic hashtags,” including those expressing explicit support for white supremacy, and that paid X subscribers were sharing Nazi content, including speeches by Adolf Hitler.

The lawmakers additionally said that antisemitic conspiracy theories about the attempted assassination of Trump “spread like wildfire” on X, and accused Musk of engaging in antisemitism himself.

Since his takeover of X last year, Musk has allowed a range of figures who spread antisemitism and were once banned from Twitter, including those of prominent white nationalist leaders like Nick Fuentes, to return to the platform, taking a more laissez-faire approach to content moderation than the previous Twitter leadership.

Pointing to Johnson’s public comments in support of the Jewish community, against antisemitism and about potential terrorist infiltration into the U.S., the lawmakers said that calling a hearing on X would “show that your words have meaning.” 

Under Johnson’s leadership, various House committees, including Oversight, have been pursuing investigations of antisemitism, particularly on college campuses, and the House has passed legislation including the Antisemitism Awareness Act.

The lawmakers, invoking Johnson’s condemnations of campus antisemitism, said that terrorists and neo-Nazis should similarly “not be welcome on one of the largest social media platforms in the world.”

Signatories to the letter included Reps. Jake Auchincloss (D-MA), Suzanne Bonamici (D-OR), Steve Cohen (D-TN), Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ), Greg Landsman (D-OH), Mike Levin (D-CA), Seth Magaziner (D-RI), Kathy Manning (D-NC), Jared Moskowitz (D-FL), Jamie Raskin (D-MD), Brad Schneider (D-IL), Kim Schrier (D-WA), Brad Sherman (D-CA), Elissa Slotkin (D-MI), Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) and Susan Wild (D-PA).

The signatories represent more than two-thirds of all Jewish Democrats in the House, spanning from the most moderate to some of the most progressive.