Advertisers are leaving as Musk’s X has to address concerns about antisemitism
The Fate of White Pride: Musk’s Tweets on white pride and antisemitism, and he is not the ADL
IBM pulled its advertising from the site, as Musk endorsed far-right talking points that promoted antisemitism and white pride. The ads for IBM and other companies were visible next to pro-Nazi and pro-Jewish content on the X website, as noted by Media Matters.
On the platform today, Musk called it “super messed up” that whites are not allowed to be proud of their race, in the words of a far-right poster. The white pride support came a day after Musk agreed with an antisemitic post claiming that Jewish communities have stoked “hatred against whites.” After a person wrote that they are deeply disinterested in giving the tiniest shit about western Jewish populations, Musk told another user that he had actually said the truth. The Atlantic wrote that Musk’s tweets echoed the “deadliest anti-Semitic conspiracy theory in recent American history” by pushing the idea that there is a “unified Jewish agenda.”
He never sued, but he has broadened the scope of his anger and still has not dropped it. Musk said that his complaint does not relate to all Jewish communities, but it is also not limited to the ADL. He didn’t agree with the ADL and any other group that pushed anti-white, anti-Asian and racism.
Has the Musk Era Revisited? The Case of Social Media, Ads on the X-Messenger Network, Amazon, Oracle, and Bloomberg
The liberal watchdog group Media Matters released a new report this week that found a number of major companies, including Apple, Amazon, Oracle NBCUniversal’s Bravo network had advertisements showing up alongside antisemitic posts on the site.
For months, Musk has tried to make money on the social media platform, though none of his efforts have gained traction, as theadvertising base appears more rickety than ever.
Linda Yaccarino, CEO of X, emphasized in August that the company was increasing its brand- safety tools to give marketers more control over what kind of content their ads appeared to.
Musk tapped Yaccarino, the former head of advertising at NBCUniversial, in large part to help bring back major advertisers to the platform since Musk acquired it last year and unleashed drastic changes. Among Musk’s shakeups has been loosening rules around what is allowed to be posted to the site, leading to a surge of hate and conspiracy theories.
“At a time when antisemitism is exploding in America and surging around the world, it is indisputably dangerous to use one’s influence to validate and promote antisemitic theories,” the Anti-Defamation league’s CEO Jonathan Greenblatt wrote on the platform on Thursday.
“Advertisers like IBM and Apple aren’t just big names, they’re big spenders on X,” says Angelo Carusone, president of Media Matters, a media watchdog group which has been tracking advertiser behavior on X. Carusone, citing data shared by data insights firm Sensor Tower, says that in July, the top five advertisers on X by spending were Apple, FinanceBuzz.io, Amazon, Mondelez International, and Hewlett-Packard. Apple has been one of the top 20 advertisers in the past.
Carusone adds that Apple typically signals a certain level of brand safety to other, smaller advertisers. The company’s strict policies on controversial content is something it’s known for. It could be that if Apple paused its advertising, it would scare other advertisers away from the platform. “It goes way beyond money.”
