Advertisers are leaving the site formerly known as Twitter after a new report revealed that pro-Nazi content gave the impression of appearing in the company’s classified ads and that Musk himself supported an unfounded anti-Semitic conspiracy theory among his 163 million followers.
IBM demonstrated Thursday that it bans advertising on X, saying the company has “zero tolerance for hate speech and discrimination. “
The European Commission also condemned X’s promotion of hate speech, confirming at a press conference on Friday that it would no longer promote it on any social media platform.
On Saturday morning, Disney, Comcast NBCUniversal, Warner Bros. , Lionsgate, Paramount Global and Apple had announced they would pull the X ads, according to media outlets that cited corporate sources.
NPR called the company for confirmation. Spokespeople for Disney and Comcast NBCUniversal showed the reports, but no other company had responded by press time.
The ad exodus comes after the liberal watchdog organization Media Matters released a new report this week revealing that several primary companies — Apple, Amazon and Oracle’s NBCUniversal Bravo Network — had classified ads that appeared alongside white nationalist messages on the site.
On Saturday morning, Musk tweeted that X plans to file a lawsuit against Media Matters on Monday, accusing it of wrongly attacking the company’s right to free speech.
Earlier in the week, Musk posted, “You told the genuine truth” in reaction to a post claiming that Jews had a “dialectical hatred” of white people.
The White House was among those condemning the tweet, with deputy press secretary Andrew Bates calling it an “egregious promotion of anti-Semitic and racist hate” that “runs counter to our core values as Americans. “
The outcry over hate speech on X comes at a difficult financial time for the platform, which generates almost all of its profits through advertising. Musk has publicly stated that advertising profits in the United States are down 60%, which he attributed to pressure from advocacy organizations such as the Anti-Defamation League.
For months, Musk has been looking for other tactics to make money on the social media platform, adding cashing “verified” blue checks into a subscription service, but none of his efforts have gained momentum, just as the company’s ad base is proving shakier than ever.
X’s CEO, Linda Yaccarino, tried to implicate the benefits and mitigate the consequences on the company’s portfolio, writing on the site that X’s position “has been very transparent that discrimination against companies deserves to stop completely,” adding, “There is no position for companies. “”For this anywhere in the world, it’s ugly and bad. Period. “
Musk tapped Yaccarino, a former NBCUniversial advertising executive, in large part to help bring major advertisers back to the platform since Musk acquired it last year and sparked drastic changes. Among Musk’s changes is loosening regulations on what is allowed to be posted on the site, which sparked a wave of hate and conspiracy theories.
“Aside from his own rhetoric, Musk has opened the floodgates to hateful content by rescinding bans against anti-Muslim bipassts, white nationalists, and anti-Semites,” according to the new Media Matters report, which also notes that X is now paying some anti-Semitic Creators to make posts go viral.
Jewish advocacy teams said it was unwise to allow anti-Jewish hatred to spread throughout an escalating war in the Middle East.
“At a time when anti-Semitism is surfacing in America and exploding around the world, it is undeniable that one’s influence must be used to validate and publicize anti-Semitic theories,” Anti-Defamation League Executive Director Jonathan Greenblatt wrote Thursday on the platform.
In September, Musk had a town hall with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who Musk wanted to do more to “push back” anti-Jewish hatred on his agenda.
In response, Musk said he “is against attacking any group, no matter who it is,” but did not particularly address anti-Semitism in X.
A previous edition of this article claimed that the Media Matters report was published before Elon Musk’s questionable tweet about the Jewish people and was published after the tweet.