Advertisers flee X as outcry grows over Elon Musk’s endorsement of anti-Semitic post
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Disney, Apple and Lionsgate halted marketing on X as Mr Elon Musk faced a furor over anti-Semitic abuse on his social media platform.
PHOTO: NYTIMES
NEW YORK – The blowback over Mr Elon Musk’s endorsement of an anti-Semitic conspiracy theory on X
The Walt Disney Company said it was pausing spending on X, as did Lionsgate, an entertainment and film distribution company.
Apple, which had been on track to spend US$180 million (S$242 million) on X in 2022, also suspended advertising on the platform, a person with knowledge of the situation said. They followed IBM, which cut its spending with X on Nov 16.
Mr Musk, who bought Twitter in 2022 and renamed it X, has been under scrutiny for months for allowing and even stoking anti-Semitic abuse on the social media platform.
That snowballed on Nov 15 when the tech billionaire agreed with a post on X that accused Jewish people who are facing anti-Semitism amid the Israel-Hamas war of pushing the “exact kind of dialectical hatred against whites that they claim to want people to stop using against them” and supporting the immigration of “hordes of minorities”.
“You have said the actual truth,” Mr Musk replied.
Jewish groups have compared the statement in the original post to a belief known as replacement theory, a conspiracy theory that posits that non-white immigrants, organised by Jews, intend to replace the white race.
That idea fuelled Mr Robert Bowers, who raged against Jewish people online before killing 11 worshippers at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh in 2018.
On Nov 17, the White House condemned Mr Musk, 52, for boosting the anti-Jewish conspiracy theory.
Mr Andrew Bates, a White House spokesman, said in a statement that it was “unacceptable to repeat the hideous lie behind the most fatal act of anti-Semitism in American history at any time, let alone one month after the deadliest day for the Jewish people since the Holocaust”.
An X spokesperson declined to comment on the advertising pauses. Axios reported earlier on Apple’s decision, and Bloomberg reported earlier on the Lionsgate suspension.
X chief executive Linda Yaccarino posted on the site on Nov 16 that the company had been “extremely clear about our efforts to combat anti-Semitism and discrimination”.
On Nov 18, Mr Musk said in an X post that the company would file a lawsuit against media watchdog Media Matters.
Media Matters had said it found that corporate advertisements by IBM, Apple, Oracle and Comcast’s Xfinity were being placed alongside anti-Semitic content.
“The split second court opens on Monday, X Corp will be filing a thermonuclear lawsuit against Media Matters and ALL those who colluded in this fraudulent attack on our company,” said Mr Musk. NYTIMES, REUTERS
