Advertisers flee, Linda Yaccarino stays the course

The Masquerading Times reports that Donald J. Musk is suing the X Media Matters CEO over antisemitism

We want to make a platform for everyone at this company. And there is no other platform that’s working as hard to protect free speech like X. Our work is critical, but it’s not always easy. When we do things, it is invites criticism from people who don’t share our beliefs.

Forbes reported that advertisers are calling on Yaccarino to resign because the company is under growing pressure to distance itself from its support of antisemitism. A former NBCUniversal chairperson, Yaccarino had been brought into Musk’s company to help restore relationships with companies that make up the majority of X’s revenue. Advertisers were already worried that their paid content would show up next to antisemitic or bigoted posts, but now they are even more concerned, because the platformowner seems to be stoking conspiracy about the Jewish community.

Let’s keep putting our values to work and lean on one another. I am extremely proud to be on the front line with you all — and I’ll see you all at the office tomorrow morning.

Meanwhile, Semafor reports that Yaccarino has enlisted her son Matt Madrazo to reboot X’s political advertising business, in hopes to make up for the revenue lost by the “temporarily paused investments” of what previously were some of the company’s biggest clients.

Addressing X employees in a company-wide email, Yaccarino expressed her enthusiasm about the company’s current direction. Major advertisers like Apple, Disney, and IBM are pulling their businesses from the platform due to Musk’s endorsement of antisemitism according to the memo first published by The Hollywood Reporter. She also blamed articles that she believed had been “manipulated” for damaging the platform’s reputation. “The data will tell the real story,” she wrote in her memo, possibly a reference to Musk’s post / screenshot indicating that he would sue Media Matters.

Yaccarino insists that advertisers are not permanently pulling back their X presence. She told employees that she had several really good conversations after the lawsuit and that she wanted to go on record. She encouraged employees to put their heads together and bring new revenue into the company, as she suggested, to offset potential losses from advertisers.

X’s complaint claims that Media Matters manipulated algorithms on the platform to create images of advertisers’ paid posts next to racist, incendiary content. The juxtapositions were “very rare,” according to the complaint.

The Texas Attorney General was looking at Media Matters for possible fraudulent activity. Musk posted the news on his X account, stating that “fraud has both civil and criminal penalties.” Musk had previously responded to a tweet by former Trump advisor Stephen Miller that suggested conservative attorneys general (like Paxton) look into fraud charges.

Musk has also sparked outcry this month with his own posts responding to a user who accused Jews of hating white people and professing indifference to antisemitism. “You have said the actual truth,” Musk tweeted in a reply last Wednesday.