Elon Musk, the billionaire owner of X who has taken a watchdog position on an advisory commission in the Trump administration, recently called out the Montgomery-based Southern Poverty Law Center, deeming the group a “criminal organization.”

Musk set himself apart in recent months, taking a prominent role in the campaign and now transition team of President-elect Donald Trump.

In response to claims that the SPLC was planning on doxing several anonymous writers for Not the Bee, the news source that started as an offshoot of the satire site, the Babylon Bee, Musk offered his opinion on the SPLC, saying he believed it was a “criminal organization.”

"The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) is a criminal organization [in my opinion]," Musk wrote on X.

According to Babylon Bee CEO Seth Dillon, the SPLC “extracted sensitive information” from the site to expose its anonymous writers.

The SPLC is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that started in 1971 as a public-interest law firm in the South, representing low-income people who couldn't represent themselves in court.

In recent years, the SPLC has come under fire internally for allegations of corruption, racial discrimination and targeting its own union members.

Externally, the APLC has long been accused of tarnishing conservative and libertarian organizations by falsely labeling them racist and placing them on a list with the Ku Klux Klan and other white supremacist organizations. 

SEE: House Judiciary report finds FBI analysts failed to assess ‘potential bias and credibility’ of Montgomery-based SPLC when categorizing Catholic groups as potential terrorists

SEE ALSO: Moms for Liberty Madison chapter founder rips SPLC for attack on parental rights group — ‘If a mom protecting her child is considered threatening, we really need to look at what threatening means’

Conservative members of Congress have also launched probes into the federal government’s reliance on SPLC data and research into alleged “hate groups,” which federal law enforcement allegedly used to target and monitor the groups identified by the SPLC.

In 2020, the Republican National Committee approved a resolution to condemn the law center's standards for identifying hate groups.

Related: Far-left SPLC activist who labeled parental rights organizations ‘hate groups’ met with Biden counterterrorism officials in January

After Trump’s successful election, he announced the formation of a new advisory commission headed by Musk and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy.

The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) analyzes federal government spending and proposes cuts to programs deemed inefficient or wasteful. The SPLC claims to receive no government funds, so it’s unlikely that DOGE can affect SPLC funding. However, with the SPLC in the sights of a powerful Trump surrogate like Musk, as well as other GOP members, it’s likely that the relationship between the federal government and the SPLC will change significantly.

To connect with the author of this story or to comment, email craig.monger@1819news.com.

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